884 CATTLE. 



Ously injured : she either cast her calf, or was lost in parturition. 

 This error has been long exploded among the breeders of sheep ; 

 and breeders of cattle are beginning to act more wisely. 



Cows that have been long afflicted with hoose, and that degener- 

 ating into consumption, are exceedingly subject to abortion. They 

 are continually in heat — they rarely become pregnant, or if they 

 do, a great proportion of them cast their calves. When consump- 

 tion is estabhshed, and the cow is much wasted away, she will rarely 

 retain her calf during the natural period of pregnancy. 



An in-calf beast will scarcely have hoove to any considerable 

 extent without afterwards abortmg. The pressure of the distended 

 rumen seems to injure or destroy the foetus. Even where the dis- 

 tension of the stomach does not wear a serious character, abortion 

 often follows the sudden change from poor to luxuriant food. Cows 

 that have been out and half-starved in the winter, and incautiously 

 turned on rich pasture in the spring, are too apt to cast their 

 calves from the undue general or local excitation that is set up p 

 and, as has been already remarked, a sudden change from rich 

 pasture to a state of comparative starv^ation will produce the same 

 effect, but from an opposite cause. Hence it is that when this dispo- 

 sition to abort first appears in a dairy, it is usually in a cow that 

 has been lately purchased. Fright, from whatever cause, may pro- 

 duce abortion. There are singular cases on record of whole herds 

 of cows slinking their calves after being terrified by an unusually 

 violent thunder-storm. Commerce with the bull soon after concep- 

 tion is a frequent cause of abortion. The casting of the calf has 

 already been attributed to the sympathetic influence of the effluvia 

 from the decomposing placenta : there are plenty of instances in which 

 other putrid smells have produced the same effect, and therefore 

 the inmates of crowded cow-houses are not unfrequently subject to 

 this mishap. 



The use of a diseased bull will occasion abortion, and the calves 

 will be aborted in a diseased state. 



Besides these tangible causes of abortion, there is the mysterious 

 agency of the atmosphere. There are certain seasons when abortion 

 is strangely frequent and fatal ; while at other times it in a manner 

 disappears for several successive years. 



There is no doubt that this must be added to the number of epi- 

 demic diseases. 



The consequences of premature calving are frequently of a very 

 serious nature. It has been stated that there is often considerable 

 spasmodic closure of the mouth of the^ uterus, and that the calf is 

 produced with much difficulty and pain, and especially if a few days 

 have elapsed after the death of the young one. When this is the 

 case, the mother frequently dies, or her recovery is much slower than 

 after natural parturition. The coat continues rough and staring for 



