General Infections of the Genitalia as a Whole 687 



monia rests upon very insecure ground, and may at any 

 date be supplanted by more effective and economic methods. 

 Pending definite knowledge of the fundamental biology of 

 calf dysentery and pneumonia, or the definite establishment 

 of a more efficient method, the present serum method should 

 be accepted as the standard, applied intelligently and freely, 

 and given full credit for its undoubted value, whatever may 

 be the origin of that value. 



The Problem of the General Infections of the 

 Genitalia as a Whole 



Throughout the discussion of the general genital infec- 

 tions of cattle, the various lesions have been considered 

 separately and in detail, while striving constantly to re- 

 gard them as related units expressing variations in the 

 ravages of the infections according to their virulence, the 

 organ involved, the period of invasion, and the differences in 

 environment. It is futile to handle cervicitis in the cow due 

 to streptococcic spermato-cystitis in the bull with which she 

 copulates. It is useless to rave over "contagious abortion" 

 in one cow and ignore retained fetal membranes in another 

 due to the same organism. It is idle to handle calf dysen- 

 tery which the calf has acquired from the uterus of its dam, 

 without trying to heal the diseased uterus. 



Many writers cry out that "contagious abortion" is caus- 

 ing tremendous losses, that its ravages are constantly grow- 

 ing more serious, and that unless halted it will soon ruin the 

 dairying and cattle breeding industry. They are right. The 

 theories they promulgate are the foundation of the peril. 

 So long as sterility, abortion, retained fetal membranes, 

 metritis, calf sepsis, dysentery, pneumonia, and the endless 

 list of other phenomena of this great group are described 

 as distinct, independent maladies and their relation to each 

 other denied or ignored, all the phenomena of the group will 

 increase. The multitude of lesions and phenomena described 

 in the preceding pages are not distinct diseases in any true 

 sense. Each of them might better be likened to bricks and 

 mortar which, when properly combined and arranged, con- 

 stitute a structure of tremendous importance. 



