434 VETERINARY LECTURES 



and auction marts a new stock of in-calf cows, most of them three 

 parts gone in calf; and then, from injury caused by galloping, or by 

 mounting on each other's backs, one or more of them has aborted. 

 Again, from being tied up on the wrong side in a strange byre 

 amongst strange companions, a cow of a fretful nature becomes so 

 unsettled that it casts its calf, with the result that most of the others 

 do the same, more especially if the animal commencing it has come 

 from an infected herd. The introduction of a newly aborted animal 

 into a byre or pasture containing in-calf animals is often the means 

 of spreading the complaint. Ergot of Rye, eaten by the cows, has 

 been named as a great producer of the malady, but I have never yet 

 been able to trace an outbreak to this source. The complaint is as 

 frequent in winter as in summer, and if ergot is a cause it is difficult 

 to imagine how a cow fed on roots, straw, cake, corn, and hay, can 

 get a sufficient quantity ot ergot to produce abortion. 



763. Epizootic abortion in cows is now found to be due to the 

 presence of a small oval or rod-shaped bacillus, and is of a highly- 

 contagious character. The disease-producing germs are found in 

 the womb and after-birth, and in the discharges coming from a cow 

 that has aborted, also in the stomach and intestines of an aborted 

 foetus. The infective material retains its virulence for several 

 months, and can be carried from place to place by various agencies, 

 such as a newly-aborted cow still discharging, also by the food and 

 water-supply which has been contaminated by the morbid discharges, 

 and by the feet and legs of dogs, cats, rats, foxes, etc., and also on 

 the hands, clothes, and shoes of the attendants. It is, therefore, 

 highly necessary that every care be used to prevent its spreading. 



764. The abolition of abortion, in my opinion, is of as great 

 importance as the abolition of tuberculosis, and ought to be legislated 

 for by the Government. An Act of Parliament should be passed 

 making criminal the exposure for sale of an aborted animal, or the 

 sending out to grass, amongst other pregnant cows, of an animal 

 that has slipped its calf, until a stated interval has passed. Formerly 

 it was the general custom, when an animal cast its calf, to prepare it 

 for the fat market ; this is done by many yet, but on some farms the 

 animals are now kept back for a certain period and again served, ajad 



