VETERINARY PROBLEMS. 47 



now. We cannot tell how long those germs remain at any 

 time, and the more I have studied this subject the better I 

 have become satisfied that this germ theory of disease is 

 going to unravel very many of these troublesome matters. 



Mr. Paul. I will ask you what was the cause of that ex- 

 citable condition of the uterus of which you spoke. Was it 

 from the quality or quantity of food ? 



Prof. Miles. In the cases I have examined I have no 

 doubt it was largely hereditary. The condition of the ani- 

 mals was one that had been transmitted from generation to 

 generation. They belonged to a pampered family, and they 

 had been brought into such a condition that a slight over- 

 feeding would produce this condition in them, when it would 

 produce no effect upon an ordinary animal. You see you 

 get conditions there of the nervous system that pass on from 

 generation to generation. 



The Chaikman. Do you recollect what plants produce 

 ergot ? 



Prof. Miles. No, I cannot give them. There is quite a 

 large number of them. Ergot is upon rye as we notice it; 

 on many of the grasses we have ergot in different forms. It 

 would be easier, perhaps, to enumerate those where it does 

 not grow. 



Mr. Cheever. It grows on timothy grass quite fre- 

 quently. 



Mr. Moore. I do not expect to throAv any light upon 

 this subject, and of course I will not occupy much time. I 

 will say this : That when I was a boy we did not hear of 

 abortion at all. The first that I knew about it was forty 

 years ago. I had a large herd of cattle. Abortion went 

 through the herd, and I lost half the calves. Then all at 

 once it disappeared. Now if this germ theory is correct, 

 there ought to have been enough of it left around my place 

 to have kept the thing up. Then some ask, " Isn't it owing 

 to high feeding?" I have observed it in a great many in- 

 stances. In the town of Concord I have seen abortion go 

 through herds where they were poorly kept on meadow hay 

 the whole winter ; I have seen it go through herds of cattle 

 where they were fed as high as Mr. Sessions feeds his. It 

 is an unaccountable disease. Now, in regard to the ergot 



