358 Diseases of the Genital Organs 



I. THE GENERAL INFECTIONS OF THE GENITAL 

 ORGANS OF BULLS 



The diseases of the genital organs of bulls, as a factor in 

 the problem of reproduction, have received scant attention 

 from veterinarians. A belief had grown up and held the 

 undivided attention of veterinarian, dairyman, and breeder, 

 that the great and only important menace to reproduction 

 in cattle was a specific infectious disease of the pregnant 

 female, designated "contagious abortion." During the past 

 few years that belief has been undergoing disintegration, 

 until very few veterinarians now cling unreservedly to the 

 tradition. There has been much unintelligent controversy 

 over the part played by the bull in genital diseases of cattle, 

 because consideration has been largely restricted to the 

 question of the part played by the bull in transmitting to 

 cows the bacillus discovered by Professor Bang, which was 

 regarded as the specific cause of the abortions occurring in 

 cattle. The attitude assumed was that the only infection of 

 interest which, attacking the genital organs of a bull, might 

 possess danger for a cow with which he might copulate was 

 the B. abortus. If, therefore, a bull was not ejaculating with 

 his semen the B. abortus, he was assumed to be virtually be- 

 yond criticism from the standpoint of infection. The study 

 of the semen of bulls and the bacteriology of the genital or- 

 gans and of the semen, except for a few searches made for 

 the B. abortus, have been of no consequence. Little or noth- 

 ing was known of the diseases of the testicles, unless they 

 became enormously enlarged or underwent abscessation. 

 The subsidiary structures — the epididymis, vas deferens, 

 vesiculae seminales, prostate and Cowper's glands — were ig- 

 nored. These facts show the strangling grip so long held 

 by "contagious abortion" upon the study of the infections 

 of the genital organs. 



The time has arrived for a frank recognition by breeder 

 and veterinarian that the bull is one-half the breeding herd, 

 that the other half is valuless unless he is genitally sound, 

 and that, speaking in percentages, he is probably as great an 

 offender as the cow. In other words, probably as large a 



