Artificial Insemination 145 



further evidence is adduced. The allegations of some en- 

 thusiasts that artificial insemination succeeds whether the 

 female is in estrum or not is without supporting evidence 

 and appears absurd. 



Artificial insemination has numerous objectionable feat- 

 ures. So far as I am aware, no livestock association offi- 

 cially recognizes such fertilization for purposes of record of 

 pedigree. The moral hazard in recording pedigrees is al- 

 ready great and artificial insemination would open a new 

 avenue to fraud. 



While the millions of spermatozoa ejaculated at each 

 coitus are technically capable of infinite fertilizations, some 

 are dead and some defective from the first, and most of 

 them succumb to bacterial or other injury while en route 

 from the vagina to the ovary, so that their numbers are 

 greatly reduced before they have reached the pavilion of 

 the oviduct. As soon as the spermatozoa are apportioned 

 between two or more animals, the certainty of fertilization 

 decreases. It is clearly impossible to keep the spermatozoa 

 as well outside the body as within the genital tract, and 

 slight error in technic may destroy completely the fertiliz- 

 ing power. 



The chief menace from artificial insemination is the trans- 

 fer of infection. In natural coitus, when the semen is ejacu- 

 lated into the vagina, there may be present infection from 

 both the male and the female genital organs. Most infec- 

 tions, so far as known, are non-motile. This affords oppor- 

 tunity for the vigorously motile spermatozoa to move away 

 from the infection, elude the dangers ,and effect fertiliza- 

 tion. Semen taken from the vagina of one female contains 

 the bacteria from herself and the male and, when introduced 

 into the vagina of a second female, carries for her a double 

 danger. If, as is generally advocated, the insemination is 

 made intra-uterine, the danger from infection is greatly in- 

 creased. 



Artificial insemination has also been advocated as a 

 remedy for sterility. When first proposed, atresia of the 

 cervical canal was considered one of the chief causes of 



