DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 173 



predisposition to disease. When the heifers of the race have for gener- 

 ation after generation been bred under a year old, the demand for the 

 nourishment of the fetus is too great a drain on the immature animal, 

 which accordingly remains small and stunted. As it fails fo develop 

 in size so every grgan fails to be nourished to perfection. Similarly 

 with the immature bull put to too many cows; he fails to develop his 

 full size, vigor, or stamina, and transfers his acquired weakness to his 

 progeny. An increasing number of barren females and an increasing 

 proclivity to abortions are the necessary results of both courses. When 

 this early breeding has occurred accidentally it is well to dry up the 

 dam just after calving, and to avoid having her served again until full 

 grown. 



Some highly -fed and plethoric females seem to escape conception by 

 the very intensity of the generative ardor. The frequent passage of 

 urine accompanied by contractions of the womb and vagina and a pro- 

 niM> secretion from their surfaces, leads to the expulsion of the semen 

 after it has been lodged in the genital passages. This may b$ reme- 

 <lird somewhat by bleeding the cow shortly before putting to the bull, 

 so as to diminish the richness and stimulating quality of the blood; or 

 better by giving a pound and a half of Epsom salts a day or two before 

 she comes in heat, and subjecting her at the same time to a spare diet. 

 Should the excessive ardor of the cow not be controllable in this way 

 she may be shut up for a day or two, until the heat is passing off, when 

 under the lessened excitement the semen is more likely to be retained. 



The various diseases of the ovaries, their tubes, the womb, the tes- 

 ticles and their excretory ducts, as referred to under Excess of Genera- 

 tive Ardor, are causes of barrenness. In this connection it maybe 

 named that the discharges consequent on calving are fatal to the vitality 

 of semen introduced before these have ceased to flow, hence service too 

 soon after calving, or that of a cow which has had the womb or genital 

 passages injured so as to keep up a muco purulent flow until the animal 

 comes in heat, is liable to fail of conception. Any such discharge should 

 be first arrested by related injections as for leucorrhu>a, after which 

 the male may be admitted. 



Feeding on a very saccharine diet, which greatly favors the deposition 

 of fat, seems to have an even more direct effort in preventing conception 

 during such regimen. Among other causes of barrenness are all those 

 that favor abortion, crgotcd grasses, smutty wheat or corn, laxative or 

 diuretic drinking water, and any improper or musty feed that causes 

 indigestions, colics, and diseases of the, urinary organs, notably gravel; 

 also savin, rue, cuntharidcH and all other irritants of the bowels or 

 kidneys. 



Hermaphrodites are barren, of course, as their sexual organs are not 

 distinctively either male or female. The heifer born a.s a twin with a 

 bull is usually hermaphrodite and barren. Hut the animals of either sex 

 in which development of the organs is arrested before they are fully 



