ACCIDENTS OF PREGNANCY. 199 



Sporadic Abortion. 



Causes. — The causes of sporadic abortion are very numerous ; they 

 may act eitlier directly or indirectly, and produce their effects in an evi- 

 dent or an obscure manner. They may be ranged as extertial ox internal. 



I. External Causes. — Atmospherical influences, bad weather, or irreg- 

 ular seasons, have been cited as causing abortion. There can be no 

 doubt whatever that cold, and especially when suddenly applied to the 

 skin, may produce this result, and hence it is that the abrupt setting in of 

 cold weather is often marked by miscarriages among animals exposed to 

 it. Many observers have noted that the continued and severe cold of 

 winter is far less frequently productive of abortions than when one cold 

 wet, or frosty night in autumn succeeds a fine warm day. Cold rain is 

 sometimes very damaging in this respect. 



With regard to food and ingesta in general, there can be no doubt that 

 here we often have an undoubted cause. Food of bad quality, indiges- 

 tible, or containing injurious ingredients, is well known to be dangerous. 

 After unfavorable seasons, when forage has not been well dried and 

 made, abortions are far from uncommon. Indigestible food, or that 

 which has a tendency to collect or ferment in the stomach, may, by 

 exerting pressure on the uterus, produce this accident.* On the other 

 hand, too great an abundance of easily-digested and stimulating food, by 

 inducing plethora, and consequent congestion of the uterus and looseni-ng 

 of the placentas, has been set down as another cause. Frozen food or 

 water, when taken in immoderate quantity, and especially if the digestive 

 organs are nearly empty, as well as forage or herbage covered with snow 

 or frost, are also injurious in this respect to all the larger animals when 

 pregnant, and abortion often follows immediately-t Filthy putrid water 

 has also very frequently a pernicious influ^ince on gestation. Some plants-— 

 such as the horse-tails {Equisetacce), sedges {Cyperacece)., etc. — and the 

 leaves of beet-root, readily induce abortion, according to several autlior- 

 ities. Rue, savin, ergot of rye, and other ecbolics will, of course, cause 

 expulsion of the foetus more or less readily ; and toxical substances, such 

 as cantharides, which act upon the uterus, will do the same. Purgatives, 

 especially those of a drastic kind, are a fertile cause ; and opium, digitalis, 

 and some other drugs have to be administered with caution. Food or 

 herbage altered by the presence of cryptogamic vegetation, has long been 



* Delwart hns given a good illustration of this. '* For t\yenty years all the Cows in a herd of thirty 

 aborted each year, and if by chance one calf reached its term, it was so puny and deformed that it died in a 

 few days after birth. The cause of these abortions appeared to me to lie in the too large quantity of grains 

 and balls of cereals with which the animals were fad ; the rumen and second compartment of the stomach 

 formed a compact mass which weighed on the foetus, prevented its development, and ended by killing it. 

 These Cows were put under our care, and submitted to a different kind of alimentation ; roots replaced 

 the innutritions food previously given, and which gave rise to permanent indigestion. This regime was 

 seconded by the administration of a decoction of linseed, five or six bucketfuls \\\ the day, and a draught of 

 a pound of sodium sulphate to each Cow. . . . Success was complete ; the destructive scourge entirely 

 disappeared, and twentj'-eight healthy calves were born at the proper time." 



t Saint-Cyr mentions that Gelle has witnessed nearly one-fifth of a flock of Sheep abort immediately 

 after drinking from a pond, the ice on which had to be broken to water them. Audoy reports an exactly 

 similar occurrence ; and Delorme, who has also observed analogous accidents, adds that they are most 

 likely to happen when the Sheep have been deprived of water for several days. Huvellier mentions a rich 

 grazier of Merlerault who owned ten brood Mares, one half of which aborted every year, because they 

 were sent three times a day to drink cold water. Often, after quenching their thirst, they trembled, were 

 seized with colic, and aborted. The regime was changed ; the Mares received water at morning and mid- 

 day in the stable, a handful of bran being put in the water ; and only in the evening were they allowed to 

 be watered outside, after the stable-doors had been opened for an hour. The abortions ceased. Flandrin 

 relates similar accidents occurring to the Mares belonging to the Prince of Conde, and from the same 



