46 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



some of the plants and grasses in the field ? I have reason 

 to suppose that that must have been the occasion of abortion 

 in a herd of my brother in Milford, Conn., where he lost 

 fifteen or sixteen calves in the course of a year, right along, 

 one after the other, and they were thoroughbred Jerseys, and 

 were not kept very high. Their stables were comfortable 

 and well ventilated. There was no apparent external cause 

 for abortion in his herd. 



Prof. Miles. Ergot is frequently the cause of abortion. 

 It is sometimes the cause when it is not suspected. It takes 

 but very little ergot to produce this effect ; it might be so 

 little that it would not be noticed. There is much in this 

 germ theory of disease, which was not developed so fully as 

 I would like to have it. It is important that more should be 

 known by the farmers in regard to this matter, so that their 

 observations in the future may be worth more. In certain 

 forms, these germs that Dr. Salmon spoke about, are very 

 readily killed ; when they grow and develop and produce 

 spores, which are exceedingly minute, they are very diflicult 

 to kill. Now, those spores are the germs of what we con- 

 sider the cause of those contagious diseases which he was 

 discussing. A case of anthrax occurred among some sheep 

 in France ; Pasteur was sent for to examine them. He came 

 and looked them over, and said, " There has not been an- 

 thrax on this farm for twelve years ; what did you do with 

 the animals that died then ? " He was told that the}*" were 

 buried in a certain field. H'e penned some sheep over that 

 place and they died of anthrax. He conjectured that the 

 cause was in the buried sheep, but how was it possible for 

 the germs to get to the surface from those buried sheep ? 

 He thoucrht of the earth worms ; he examined the earth 

 worms, and found specific germs of anthrax in them. But 

 he was mistaken in supposing the worms to be the cause of 

 their transmission, for, under certain conditions, the germs 

 would live on the soil for years ; in certain other conditions, 

 they may be very readily destroyed. Now, coming to this 

 subject of abortion, where we have these epidemic cases 

 breaking out very suddenly, without any apparent cause, it 

 'may have been from germs remaining in the soil, under con- 

 ditions which we cannot define which have produced effect 



