DISEASES PECULIAR TO BREEDING STOCK, 328 



generally of a mechanical nature. But when the animal 

 never shows any sign of heat the prospects of its appearance 

 are very unfavorable. Sexual energy may be restored in 

 mares that have been overworked, or are in a poor condition 

 from want of proper nutrition, by a reversal to freedom from 

 work and liberal keep upon nutritious and stimulating food. 

 In phlegmatic mares, or such where sexual sluggishness or 

 indifference exists, if not due to obesity, they should be fed 

 on rich and stimulating food, often changed, occasionally 

 steamed or cooked, among which may be mixed a handful of 

 hempseeds twice daily. By way of experiment, fluid extract 

 of damiana may be tried in half -ounce doses, together with 

 tincture of cantharides in half-ounce doses, mixed with half 

 a pint of flaxseed tea, and such a dose given twice or thrice 

 daily during a week, and repeated with intervals of one week 

 for a term of three weeks; meanwhile letting the mare once 

 or twice weekly come near the stallion, or be placed near him 

 in the stable. The medicines may be bought at wholesale 

 price by buying a pound or pint of each; otherwise the ex- 

 periment will be too costly. 



NYMPHOMANIA. 



Excessive venery exists in the female as well as in the 

 male, and is evidenced by an insatiable desire for sexual in- 

 tercourse, the mare appearing to be almost constantly in 

 heat. This condition has several causes for its existence, 

 among which may be mentioned undue irritation or conges- 

 tion of the ovaries, the fallopian tubes, or the womb, which 

 causes the secretion of a peculiar irritating fluid. Scrofulous 

 affections of the generative organs, or tuberculosis, especially 

 of the body of the womb and its divergences, are known to 

 be frequent causes of nymphomania. The state of the gen- 

 erative organs, under the last-named causes, is such as to 

 render conception impossible; while at the same time the 

 irritation induced by the morbid secretions continually in- 

 duces an excessive and unnatural sexual desire. Under the 

 existence of any of these conditions gestation could not exist, 

 neither could conception be accomplished. A mare affected 

 with nymphomania is a continual disturber of the peace and 



