174 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



matured, remain as in the male or female prior to puberty, and are barren. 

 Jiulls -with both testicles retained within the abdomen may go through 

 the form of serving a. cow, but the service is unfruitful; the sperma- 

 tozoa are not fully elaborated. So I have examined a heifer with a 

 properly formed but very small womb, and an extremely narrow vagina 

 and vulva, the walls of which were very muscular, that could never be 

 made to conceive. A post-mortem examination would probably have 

 disclosed an imperfectly formed ovary incapable of bringing ova to 

 maturity. 



A bull and cow that have been too closely inbred in the same line for 

 generations may prove sexually incompatible and unable to generate 

 together, though both are abundantly prolific when coupled with animals 

 of other strains of blood. 



Finally a bull may prove unable to get stock, not from any lack of sex- 

 ual development, but from disease of other organs (back, loins, hind 

 limbs), which renders him unable to mount with the energy requisite to 

 the perfect service. 



CONGESTION AND INFLAMMATION OF THE TESTICLES OBCHITIS. 



This usually results from blows or other direct injuries, but may be 

 .. the result of excessive service or of the formation of some new growth 

 (tumor) in the gland tissue. The bull moves stiffly, with straddling 

 gait, and the right or left half of the scrotum in which the affected tes- 

 ticle lies is swollen, red, and tender, and the gland is drawn up within 

 the sac and dropped down again at frequent intervals. It may be treated 

 by rest, 1 pounds Epsom salts given in 4 quarts water, by a restricted 

 diet of some succulent food; by continued fomentations with warm 

 water by means of sponges or rags sustained by a sling passed around 

 the loins and back between the hind legs. The pain may be allayed 

 by smearing with a solution of opium or of extract of belladonna. 

 Should a soft point appear indicating the formation of matter it may 

 be opened with a sharp lancet and the wound treated daily with a solu- 

 tion of a teaspoonful of carbolic acid in a half pint of water. Usually, 

 however, when the inflammation has proceeded to this extent the gland 

 will be ruined for purposes of procreation and must be cut out. (See 

 Castration, p. 316.) 



INFLAMMATION OF THE SHEATH. 



While this may occur in bulls from infection during copulation and 

 from bruises, blows, and other mechanical injuries, the condition is 

 more common in the ox in connection with the comparative inactivity 

 of the parts. The sheath has a very small external opening, the mucous 

 membrane of which is studded with sebaceous glands secreting a thick 

 unctuous matter of a strong, heavy odor. Behind this orifice is a dis- 

 tinct pouch, in which this unctuous matter is liable to accumulate when 

 the penis is habitually drawn back. Moreover, the sheath has two mus- 



