Artificial Insemination 143 



The veterinarian should constantly remember that es- 

 trum and ovulation come as a matter of course in healthy 

 females of breeding age and that when estrum fails it is 

 because of general ill health or some other restraining 

 cause. No drug has yet been discovered which can di- 

 rectly cause estrum or ovulation. The restoration of the 

 general health, relief from distinctively genital diseases, 

 and the surgical dislodgment of the inhibiting corpus lu- 

 teum, when present, constitute the fundamental principles 

 in regulating estrum and ovulation. 



B. Artificial Insemination. Artificial Impregnation 



Artificial insemination or impregnation has been advo- 

 cated by a limited number of veterinarians and breeders. 

 The advocacy has been based upon various hypotheses and 

 facts, but the operation has not come into extended use. At 

 present there are no indications that the scheme will ever 

 occupy an important place in livestock husbandry. 



Artificial insemination is not difficult and there can be no 

 question of its efficacy in fertilization. It has been advo- 

 cated in two distinct fields — to conserve the sexual powers 

 of valuable sires by causing numerous fertilizations from a 

 single coitus and also to insure fertilization in a female 

 otherwise sterile. 



The fertilizing of many females by a single coitus is of 

 course technically possible, and has appealed very strongly 

 to some owners of fashionable sires. Technically, in all ani- 

 mals there are millions of spermatozoa ejaculated at each 

 coitus, of which but one can take part in the fertilization of 

 an egg, and the millions of others must perish. Any at- 

 tempt to conserve these millions of spermatozoa, when from 

 a valuable sire, has much in it to appeal to some owners, 

 and comparatively simple means are at hand for carrying 

 out the operation. The prime essentials to possible arti- 

 ficial fertilization are that the spermatozoa shall be obtained 

 promptly after ejaculation by the male, kept moist, the tem- 

 perature maintained at approximately that of the body 

 (100 to 105 degrees, F.), and introduced into the genital 



