118 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



years of age. Of some forty cows served by the older bull, 

 all aborted between the sixth and thirteenth week of preg- 

 nancy, while the accident did not occur in any of those 

 served by the younger. In neither case have we any record 

 of any abnormal conditions being present in the bulls, so 

 that all the value such observations have is to indicate that 

 more attention could be well given to the bull question ; but 

 not with regard to enzootic abortion, but rather with refer- 

 ence to tuberculosis and sporadic abortion. 



Roloff reports a case in which all the cows in one stable 

 aborted, while of those in another on the same farm none 

 aborted. Care, feed and ventilation were exactly the same 

 in each case. In another stable where traffic caused an 

 almost constant change 'in the animals, which were of every 

 variety of breed, and gathered from all parts of Germany, 

 nearly every pregnant cow aborted, one after another. 



In another, abortion still continued after every possible 

 change in the manner of feeding had been made. 



Abortion has been frequently observed to occur in cows 

 fed upon brewery and distillery refuse, by Richter, in Ger- 

 many, director of the Berlin veterinary school. He claims 

 that looking upon an insufficiency of salt in such feed as the 

 cause, it entirely ceased when this want was equalized by 

 the additJon of a sufficiency of saline ingredients to the food. 



It is only necessary to add that this was not our form of 

 abortion. * 



Roloif also reports cases in which he has observed the 

 trouble existing in stables for a uumber of years with ever- 

 increasing intensity, until nearly every gravid cow aborted. 

 This shows that the cause can become domiciled in a given 

 locality. 



In a stable, on a farm in Saxony, one cow after another 

 aborted, while of those in another on the same farm none 

 aborted ; but upon a maid assisting at an abortion in the first 

 stable, going back to her regular work among those of the 

 second, the cows in the latter began to abort, the evil con- 

 tinuing for a long time. 



These examples, particularly the last one, are sufficient to 

 indicate that there must be some special, specific cause at 

 the bottom of this trouble which we must consider, and that 



