DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 171 



by the male stimulate tlie unsatisfied appetite, and inflammation ami a 

 purulent 'discharge from the womb or vagina. 



The treatment in each case will vary with the cause, and is most satis- 

 factory when that cause is a removable one. Overfeeding on richly 

 nitrogenous food can be stopped, exercise in the open field secured, dis- 

 eased ovaries may be removed (see Castration, p. 317), catarrhs of the 

 womb and passages overcome by antiseptic astringent injections (see 

 Leucorrhoea), and tumors of the womb may often be detached and 

 extracted, the mouth of that organ having been first dilated by sponge 

 tents or otherwise. The rubber dilator (impregnator) though some- 

 times helpful in the mare is rarely available for the cow, owing to the 

 different condition of the mouth of the womb. 



DIMINUTION OR LOSS OF VENEREAL DESIRE ANArHRomsiA. 



This will occur in either sex from low condition and ill health. Long 

 standing chronic diseases of important internal organs leading to 

 emaciation and weakness, or a prolonged semi-starvation in winter, 

 may be a sufficient cause. It is, however, much more common as the 

 result of degeneration or extensive and destructive disease of the secret- 

 ing organs (testicles, ovaries), wliich elaborate the male and female 

 sexual products respectively. Such diseases are therefore a common 

 cause of sterility in both sexes. The old bull, fat and lazy, becomes 

 sluggish and unreliable in serving, and finally gete to be useless for 

 breeding purposes. This is not due to his weight and clumsiness alone, 

 but largely to the fatty degeneration of his testicles and their excretory 

 hich prevents the due formation and maturation of the semen. 



I : he has been kept in extra high condition for exhibition in the show 

 ring this disqualification comes upon him sooner and becomes more 

 irremediable. 



Similarly the overfed, inactive cow, and above all the show cow, fails 

 to come in lieat at the usual intervals, shows little disposition to bike 

 the bull, and fails to conceive when served. Her trouble is the same 

 in kind, namely, fatty degeneration of the ovaries and of their excretory 

 ducts (Fallopian tubes), which prevents the formation or maturation of 

 the ovum, or when it has formed, hinders its descent into the womb. 

 Another common defect in such old fat cows is a rigid closure of the 

 mouth of the womb, wliich prevents conception, even if the ovum 

 reaches the interior of that organ, and even if the semen is discharged 

 into the vagina. 



The true preventive of uch conditions is to be found in a sound 

 hygiene. The breeding animal should be of adult age, neither over nor 

 under fed, but well fed and moderately exercis**!; in other words, the 

 most vigorous health should be sought, not only that a strong race may 

 be propagated, but that the whole herd, or nearly so, may breed with 

 certainty. Fleming piven 79 per cent as the general average of cows 

 that are found to breed in one year. Here more than a lifth of the 



