III. THE CONGENITAL INFECTIONS OF CALVES 



Calf Septicemia, Calf Dysentery, Dysentery Neonatorum, 



Calf Scours, White Scours, Pyemic Arthritis, 



Joint 111, Calf Pneumonia 



While considering the infections of the ovum, embryo and 

 fetus, it was pointed out that both the pregnant and the non- 

 pregnant uterus commonly contain bacteria of various 

 kinds, and that in the pregnant cow these invade the fetal 

 membranes, enter the amniotic fluid, are swallowed by the 

 embryo, and constitute a part of the meconium. Generally 

 the bacteria are included in the meconium, though they 

 cause no recognizable disease of the fetus, but in numerous 

 cases, associated especially with the phenomenon of abor- 

 tion, they cause diarrhea and sepsis. 



Birth can not serve as a line of demarcation between the 

 infections of ante- and post-natal life. Non-fatal infections 

 of the fetus inevitably involve the new-born calf. More gen- 

 erally the bacteria included within the meconium at the time 

 of birth remain for a time as bacterial inclusion rather than 

 infection, and may at any period subsequent to birth acquire 

 force and cause disease. Accordingly calves show a very 

 wide range of disease phenomena referable to intra-uterine 

 infection. The clinical symptoms and postmortem lesions 

 do not admit of the division of these results of infection 

 into distinct diseases having separate causes and histories : 

 the various types pass imperceptibly one into the other. 

 Neither can intra-uterine infections be definitely separated 

 from post-natal invasions. An infection emanating from 

 the uterus of a cow and swallowed by her fetus may with 

 equal facility be swallowed by her new-born calf when the 

 liberated uterine discharges flow down the thighs of the 

 cow and reach the teat which the calf sucks. Neither can 

 there well be any fundamental difference in results, whether 

 a bacterium is swallowed by the fetus or is taken into the 

 alimentary tract of the calf shortly after birth. Varying 

 types of disease phenomena occur, the fundamental cause 

 of which is the same, so far as known. When the uterus of 



