348 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



mors of other kinds (largely pigmentary) affecting the tes- 

 ticles or panis; (j ) nervous diseases which abolish the sexual 

 appetite or that control over the muscles which is essential 

 to the act of coition; (k) azoturia with resulting weakness or 

 paralysis of the muscles of the loins or the front of the thigh 

 (above the stifle); (I) ossification (anchylosis) of the joints of 

 the back or loins, which renders the animal unable to rear 

 or mount; (m) spavins, ringbones, or other painful affections 

 of the hind limbs, the pain of which in mounting causes th3 

 animal to suddenly stop short in the act. In the first three 

 of these only (a, b and c) is there real sterility in the sense 

 of the non-development or imperfect development of the 

 male vivifying element (spermatozoa). In the other ex- 

 amples the secretion may be perfect in kind and amount, but 

 as copulation is prevented it cannot reach and impregnate 

 the ovum. 



In the mare barrenness is equally due to a variety of 

 causes. In a number of breeding studs the proportion of 

 sterile mares has varied from 20 to 40 per cent. It may ba 

 due to: (a) Imperfect development of the ovary and non- 

 maturation of ova; (6) cystic or other tumors of the 

 ovary; (c) fatty degeneration of the ovary in very obese, 

 pampered mares; (d) fatty degeneration of the excretory 

 tubes of the ovaries (fallopian tubes); (e) catarrh of the 

 womb, with muco-purulent discharge; (/) irritable condition 

 of the womb, with profuse secretion, straining, and ejection 

 of the semen; [g] nervous irritability, leading to the same 

 expulsion of the male element; (h) high condition (plethora) 

 with profuse secretion and excitement; (i) low condition 

 with imperfect maturation of the ova and lack of sexual de- 

 sire; (j) poor feeding, overwork and chronic debilitating 

 diseases, as leading to the condition just named; (k) closure 

 of the neck of the womb, temporarily by spasm or perma- 

 nently by inflammation and induration; (I) closure of the 

 entrance to the vagina through imperforate hymen, a rare 

 though not unknown condition in the mare; (m) acquired 

 indisposition to breed, seen in old, hard-worked mares, 

 which are first put to the stallion when aged; (n) change 

 of climate has repeatedly been followed by barrenness; (o) 



