292 DISEASES OP CATTLE. 



from one stomach to another without injury, and in the 

 shortest possible time. By giving medicine in the form 

 of a solid^ as is sometimes given to the horse, in place of 

 the medicine finding its way into any of the stomachs, it 

 is more likely to break through the floor of the cesopha- 

 gean canal, (a platform at the bottom of the gullet) not 

 only losing the medicine, but at the same time destroying 

 the animal. 



In cases of abscess, tumors, sores or ulcers, etc., on 

 cattle, and where the description and treatment is not 

 full enough, or not given at all, the reader is requested 

 to turn to the Diseases of the Horse, or Part I of the 

 book, where he will find ample information concerning 

 what he may want to be more particularly posted upon. 



Abortion. — This is the coming away of the calf, at 

 so early a period, and before it is perfectly formed and 

 matured, that it cannot live, and occurs at any time from 

 conception, to within a few weeks of the full time of 

 calving. 



Causes. — The frequency of abortion, the apparently 

 epizootic form which it sometimes assumes, together with 

 the immense loss which thereby occurs to the farmer, 

 and through him to the country at large, makes the 

 cause of abortion in cows one of the most vital of sub- 

 jects. The theory of sympathy, which some authors and 

 farmers favor as a cause of abortion, is not to be enter- 

 tained for a moment by any one having any pretension 

 whatever to a knowledge of physiology, and the patholo- 

 gical anatomy of cattle. I have known a whole herd of 

 cows, with but one or two exceptions, abort their calf, and 

 yet not one of those cows ever saw one another. Some 

 of those cows came from the State of New York, and yet 

 they were kept separate by themselves, and from those 



