CAUSES OF STERILITY. 89 



after parturition, and while the consequent discharges from the 

 womb or passages continue, paralysis of the penis from blows 

 or otherwise ; sprained loins, spavins, or other malady of the 

 hind parts which tortures the animal when he mounts. 



The female often conceives with difficulty, if she has not been 

 used for breeding in early life, and hence many follow the rather 

 questionable policy of putting her to the male at as early an 

 age as she comes in heat, no matter how young. The New York 

 abortion reports show the danger of this, in weakening the con- 

 stitution, and above all the generative organs, when persisted in 

 for a succession of generations, and when the young animal is 

 milked after the first calf. A celebrated Scotch breeder of 

 Shorthorns, however, Mr. Douglass, of Athelstaneford, asserts 

 that neither constitution nor stamina suffer from breeding at 

 a year old, provided the heifer is abundantly nourished during 

 pregnancy, and is not milked during the succeeding year. 



A second cause of failure is serving too soon after parturition 

 — in the mare for instance two or three days after foaling. 

 The womb has oftentimes not fully contracted at this date, a 

 condition not conducive to conception ; and it too commonly 

 still discharges a muco-purulent matter. Now the presence of pus 

 in the womb or passages is found to be fatal to vitality and move- 

 ments of the spermatozoa ; so that until this has ceased it is folly 

 to put to the male. Connection in these circumstances has the 

 additional disadvantage, as we have already seen, of frequently 

 inducing disease in the male. 



Over-excitement of the generative organs, whether from excess 

 of highly stimulating food, plethora, or disease of the organs 

 may stand in the way of conception. Hence it is found that 

 bleeding before putting to the male often calms such irritation 

 and secures a successful result. Low feeding before and during 

 rut in animals showing this tendency . will sometimes succeed, 

 and waiting imtil heat is passing off will equally favor conception. 

 A system practised in Arabia of sweating a mare before present- 

 ing to the horse may have been partly suggested by its influence 

 in distracting attention and thus quieting sexual excitement, 

 though it may on the other hand have been resorted to with 

 the view of calling out the fall vigor of the dam at the time of 

 conception in order to perpetuate it. 



Obesity in the female as in the male, is a cause of sterility. 



12 



