822 Diseases of the Genital Organs 



bacteria which may serve to cause the disease is unknown 

 and unestimated. 



So far as known, the blood of the dam always carries an- 

 tibodies to the infections present in her uterus. The blood 

 of the fetus does not, with rare exceptions, carry such anti- 

 bodies, but the bacteria of the uterus exist in the meconium 

 of the fetus, ready after birth to penetrate the alimentary 

 mucosa and cause septicemia or arthritis. If the blood of 

 the mother is used as a prophylactic or therapeutic agent, 

 it is virtually certain that antibodies against all intra-uter- 

 ine infections are included. It does not assure the inclusion 

 of antibodies against extrinsic or navel infection. The pro- 

 phylaxis of this may be attained, however, by the proper 

 disinfection of the navel stump when the foal is born. At 

 the same time, the blood of the mare probably contains anti- 

 bodies against the most common infections invading the 

 navel. 



Forssell at first used the blood serum from the dam, but 

 found this objectionable because it involved a delay of one 

 day, which is very undesirable in the most violent cases. He 

 then turned to the Lewisohn method of using the entire 

 blood. He found that, by adding neutral sodium citrate, 

 two parts to one thousand parts of blood, horse blood will 

 not coagulate. The uncoagulated blood may be given safely 

 intravenously or subcutaneously. The technic of Forssell 

 directs that first the phlebotomy needle, the vessel for the 

 blood, the hypodermic syringe, and other apparatus should 

 be boiled. The water used for boiling these needs to be free 

 from lime, because any of this coming in contact with the 

 blood causes coagulation despite the presence of sodium 

 citrate. 



When ready to draw the blood, one gram of sodium 

 citrate in fifty grams of water is placed iu a Mask or other 

 container and shaken about until the sides of the vessel are 

 well moistened. This suffices to prevent the coagulation of 

 500 cc. of blood, which volume, or a trifle less, is used as a 

 sigle dose. While the blood is being drawn, it needs to be 

 agitated constantly or stirred, in order to keep it mixed with 



