The Nodular I'enereal Disease 307 



and muco-pus upon the inflamed mucosa. The number of 

 nodules necessary to warrant the term "numerous," the 

 amount of inflammation necessary to warrant the diagno- 

 sis of inflammation, or the amount of muco-pus necessary 

 for recognition as such, varies with each observer. In 

 Bulletin 106 of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, I took as my basis for diagnosis the visible existence 

 of nodules in the vulvar mucosa. If nodules were present, 

 were they two or three or even only one, if they were typi- 

 cal, I classed the individual as infected ; if I failed to recog- 

 nize any of the lesions, I classed it negative. 



Whenever sterility and abortion are highly virulent in a 

 herd, the nodular venereal disease is intense ; whenever the 

 rate of abortion is very low, there is a correspondingly low 

 intensity of the nodular venereal disease. This parallelism 

 is very striking and suggestive. It constitutes evidence of 

 a possible relationship between this infection and the breed- 

 ing disasters, which should not be ignored. However, it is 

 merely a bit of interesting evidence — not proof. 



It has been stated by some observers that, with the ad- 

 vent of the disease in a herd of cows, abortion broke loose 

 as a storm. The truth of the matter is that the infection 

 was discovered after the outbreak of the abortion. There 

 is no good reason to assume that it had not existed in the 

 herd from the very beginning. No search was made for it 

 until the abortion storm broke ; then observation revealed 

 its presence, and the disease was attributed to it. 



Some observers have recorded that in outbreaks of abor- 

 tion in sows a clinical examination revealed the presence of 

 the nodular venereal disease. Hence it was said that the 

 disease had been transmitted from cows to sows and that 

 thereupon "contagious abortion" broke out. Thus it has 

 been claimed that, wherever the nodular venereal disease 

 appears, extensive losses from abortion must follow. Had 

 the observers taken the precaution to examine the genital 

 organs of supposedly healthy sows in herds where abortion 

 did not prevail, there also the disease would have been 

 found. 



