DISEASES OF THE GENEKATIVE ORGANS. 149 



citement, when, in the absence of tuberculous disease elsewhere, they 

 may be fattened for the butcher. 



Among the other sources of irritation charged with causing nym- 

 phomania are tumors and cancers of the womb, rigid closure of the 

 neck of the womb so that conception can not occur and the frequent 

 services by the male which stimulate the unsatisfied appetite, inflam- 

 mation, and a purulent discharge from the womb or vagina. 



Treatment. — The treatment in each case will vary with the cause 

 and is most satisfactory when that cause is a removable one. Over- 

 feeding on richly nitrogenous feed can be stopped, exercise in the 

 open field given, diseased ovaries may be removed (see "Castra- 

 tion," p. 299), catarrhs of the womb and passages overcome by anti- 

 septic, astringent injections (see Leucorrhea," p. 224), and tumors 

 of the womb may often be detached and extracted, the mouth of that 

 organ having been first dilated by sponge tents or otherwise. The 

 rubber dilator (impregnator), sometimes helpful in the mare, is 

 rarely available for the cow, owing to the different condition of the 

 mouth of the womb. 



DIMINUTION OR LOSS OF VENEREAL DESIRE (ANAPHRODISIA). 



This occurs in either sex from low condition and ill health. Long- 

 standing, chronic diseases of important internal organs, leading to 

 emaciation and weakness, or a prolonged semistarvation in winter 

 may be sufficient cause. It is, however, much more common as the 

 result of degeneration or extensive and destructive disease of the 

 secreting organs (testicles, ovaries) which elaborate the male and 

 female sexual products, respectively. Such diseases are, therefore, a 

 common cause of sterility in both sexes. The old bull, fat and lazy, 

 becomes sluggish and unreliable in serving, and finally gets to be use- 

 less for breeding purposes. This is not attributable to his weight and 

 clumsiness alone, but largely to the fatty degeneration of his testicles 

 and their excretory ducts, which prevents the due formation and 

 maturation of the semen. If he has been kept in extra high condi- 

 tion for exhibition in the show ring, this disqualification comes upon 

 him sooner and becomes more irremediable. 



Similarly the overfed, inactive cow, and above all the show cow, 

 fails to come in heat at the usual times, shoAvs little disposition to 

 take the bull, and fails to conceive Avhen served. Her trouble is the 

 same in kind, namely, fatty degeneration of the ovaries and of their 

 excretory ducts (Fallopian tubes), which prevents the formation or 

 maturation of the ovum, or, when it has formed, hinders its passage 

 into the womb. Another common defect in such old, fat cows is a 

 rigid closure of the mouth of the womb, which prevents conception, 

 even if the ovum reaches the interior of that organ and even if the 

 semen is discharged into the vagina. 



