496 Diseases of the Genital Organs 



but evidently this is not due to mechanical injury. It does 

 not lead to abortion, but to fetal retention. Hence it may 

 be stated that up to the present no proven instance of me- 

 chanical or traumatic abortion has been recorded in the cow 

 nor in any other animal, and no logical explanation has been 

 put forward of how mechanical injury can cause abortion, 

 (d) Food abortion has also been asserted to occur, and 

 every known food has been blamed. The food is alleged to 

 be too rich or too poor in proteins or in water, or it was fed 

 too cold or in improper volume. Much has been charged to 

 damaged foods. Since nearly all foods are damaged some- 

 what, bad food can be made to fit most cases of abortion. 

 Special emphasis has been laid upon foods contaminated 

 with fungi, such as ergot and smut, although I can find no 

 authentic record of experimental or other evidence of the 

 ability of any fungus to cause a healthy female to abort. 

 McCullom, Hart, and others have experimentally shown 

 that, by feeding cows upon a restricted kind of food (the 

 wheat plant alone), although technically all essential food 

 elements were given in abundance, the animals lost vigor, 

 the calves born of these animals were weak and unthrifty, 

 and as the experiments proceeded, abortion ensued, then 

 conception failed, and finally the cows perished. But this 

 is the mere decadence of vigor due to nutritive disturbance. 

 Upon inquiry I was advised that when the experiment cows 

 aborted they commonly had retained fetal membranes, for 

 which up to the present there can be but one explanation — 

 the presence in the uterus of an infection causing placentitis. 

 The facts recorded by McCullom and Hart are of supreme 

 and vital interest to breeders of animals. Practically the 

 food, in a sense, caused the abortion, but the manner in 

 which the food ration acted should be carefully considered. 

 It seems to me evident that bacteria were presenl in the 

 uteri of the experiment animals (as is commonly true) and 

 that the devitalizing food ration given so lowered the vitality 

 of the animals that the resident infection increased in viru- 

 lence and caused disaster. The contention thai all abortions 

 are basically referable to infection is neither an argument 



