200 THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OP 



together with the apology of offspring of cows doomed to drag 

 out a miserable existence in some horrible " swill-milk estab- 

 lishment," where death runs riot, or runs into the milk-pail to 

 kill off unnursed infants ; these being permitted to come into 

 the world with their inherited imperfections, and being suffered 

 to grow up and become parents, issuing a worse edition than 

 the original copy in turn — these bad specimens, not o^ nature s 

 handiwork, but of man's ignorance and folly, or wilful trans- 

 gression of the law of nature, being permitted to live, they 

 would be so many libels on creative power ; and in order to 

 remove them from the face of the earth, and put a check on 

 the monstrous evil, a friendly pestilence must eventually 

 ensue. 



This would be a mournful event ; for many valuable animals 

 might, by infection or contagion, be involved in the general 

 ruin ; therefore nature adopts the lesser evil ; applies the law 

 of destruction prior to the birth of monstrosity. 



The laws of reproduction and destruction are nicely and 

 wisely balanced; "thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." 

 The offspring of weak, emaciated, ill-formed, scrofulous, con- 

 sumptive, and otherwise defective animals, should never be 

 used for breeding purposes ; in fact, they are not even fit for 

 the butcher. 



Finally, I would advise breeders to let the female get her 

 growth, ere she is forced into copulation ; for prior to maturity, 

 all the energies of her system are concentrated upon the per- 

 fection and integrity of her organism, and until that important 

 period arrives, the reproductive system cannot be exercised 

 without running great risk of violating one of the fundamental 

 laws of nature. (See article on breeding, page 147.) 



I have now directed the reader's attention to most of the 

 causes likely to influence or induce abortion, and I leave the 

 rest, if any there be, to be discovered by their own experience. 

 It is impossible for me to furnish definite instructions as regards 

 the treatment of individual cases, either prior or subsequent to 

 abortion, as each require a certain course, according to the 

 condition and prevailing symptoms ; yet, if I have succeeded 



