Infections of the Gravid Uterus 797 



losses, but they were certainly enormous. At that time I 

 was engaged in practice in what was then one of the most 

 important horse-breeding districts in America. In 1888, in 

 the area of my practice, involving about 400 square miles, 

 at least 2500 mares aborted, causing an immediate loss of 

 not less than $150,000. These losses were typical of those 

 in other breeding centers. In some townships where horse 

 breeding constituted one of the principal agricultural pur- 

 suits, the abortions exceeded seventy-five per cent, of the 

 pregnant mares. The losses were most marked in large 

 breeding establishments where highly valuable mares were 

 kept for breeding purposes alone. The losses were just as 

 real on small farms where but a few mares were kept, 

 which, after aborting, could be employed to some extent in 

 farm work. In one season a client with a highly valuable 

 herd of about fifty imported draft mares lost every foal 

 from abortion. In another instance, in the territory of a 

 neighboring veterinarian, a breeder had 100 pregnant im- 

 ported draft mares, in which the loss from abortion was 

 total as to foals and four of the mares perished. Other 

 similar instances might be related without number which 

 would give a somewhat vivid impression of the enormous 

 losses. 



As in cows, so in mares, intra-uterine infection may and 

 does interrupt the reproductive functions at any date. The 

 spermatozoa, the ova, the fertilized ova, the embryo, the 

 fetus and the new-born foal may succumb to the infection, 

 but the most striking phenomenon is the observed expulsion 

 of the fetal cadaver. Consequently abortion is said to be 

 most common from the sixth to the tenth month, because 

 this is the most favorable date for observing the disaster. 



The symptoms of abortion in mares are less notable than 

 in cows. Mares rarely suffer from retention of the fetal 

 membranes, which constitutes a common landmark of abor- 

 tion in cows. The diagnosis of abortion in mares is there- 

 fore usually confined to observing the mare in the act or dis- 

 covering the fetal cadaver under circumstances which en- 

 able one to trace it to its source. 



