SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 633 



their deleterious properties if fed with au abundance of water, so that 

 they may prove harmless if fed with roots, ensilage, etc., whereas they 

 will prove hurtful when fed in the same amount with dry hay. They 

 are also more liable to injure if fed for a long time in succession in win- 

 ter, though it may be in smaller quantity. 



Rust is also charged with causing abortions. That other crytogams 

 found in musty fodder are productive of abortion has been well establish- 

 ed. In Germany and France the wet years of 1851, 1852, and 1853 were 

 notorious for the prevalence of abortions. Fodders harvested in such 

 seasons are alwaj's more or less musty, and musty hay and grain have 

 been long recognized as a prolific cause of digestive, urinary, and cere- 

 bral disorders. Impactions and bloatings of the stomachs, excessive 

 secretion of urine (diuresis), and red water are common results of such, 

 musty fodder, and we have already seen that such disorders of the diges- 

 tive and urinary organs are very liable to affect the pregnant womb and 

 induce abortion. , 



The riding of one another by cows is attended by such severe mus- 

 cular exertion, jars, jolts, mental excitement, and gravitation of the 

 womb and abdominal organs backward that it may easily cause abortion 

 In a predisposed animal. 



Keeping in stalls that slope too much behind (over 2 inches) acts in 

 the same way, the compression due to lying and the gravitation back- 

 ward proving more than a predisposed cow can safely bear. 



Deep gutters behind the stalls, into whieh one or both hind limbs 

 slip unexpectedly, strain the lions and jar the body and womb most in- 

 juriously. Slippery stalls in which the flooring boards are laid longi- 

 tudinally in place of transversely, and on which on cleats or other device 

 is adopted to give firm foothold, are almost equally dangerous. Driving 

 on icy ground or through a narrow doorway where the obdomen is liable 

 to be jammed are other common causes. Offensive odors undoubtebly 

 cause abortion. To understand this one must take into account the 

 preternaturally acute sense of smell pessessed by cattle. By this sense 

 the bull instantly recognizes the pregnant cow and refrains from distrub- 

 her, while man, with all his boasted skill and precise methods, finds it 

 difficuly to come to a just conclusion. The emnsations from a cow in 

 heat, however, will instantly draw the bull from a long distance. Car- 

 rion in the pasture fields or about slaughterhouses near by, the emama- 

 tions from shallow graves, dead rats or chickens about the barn, and 

 dead calves, the product of prior abortions, are often changeable with 

 the occurrence of aborations. Aborting cows often fail to expel the after 

 birth, and if this remains hanging in a putrid condition it is most in- 

 jurious to pregnant cows in the near vicinity. So with retained after- 

 birth in other cows after calfing. That some cows kept in filthy stables 

 or near-by slaughterhouses may become inured to the odors and escape 

 the evil results is no disproof of the injurious affects so often seen in 

 such cases. 



