218 PATHOLOGY OF PREGNANCY. 



been a supposed influence of locality — the disease fixing itself in par- 

 ticular places and sparing others. For instance, Heuze remarks that 

 in the department of the Nievre, France, abortions are very few in 

 the arrondissement of Clamecy, while in other arrondissements there is 

 scarcely a calf. 



With regard to local conditions or causes, it is certain that the regime 

 to which animals are subjected cannot be adduced as in operation ; 

 for the abortions occur under every kind of management, and as fre- 

 quently, perhaps, with poor as with fat stock, and irrespective of age, 

 breed, or constitution. 



Malarial poisoning is a cause of abortion in domestic animals as 

 well as in the human species ; and in the malarial districts in Africa, 

 Florida, and India, Weatherly asserts that the natives of these parts 

 are so well aware of this, that they send their Cattle and Sheep inland 

 to breed, only bringing them back to fatten. ^ 



The influence of inclement seasons may, as has been remarked, 

 operate in inducing wide-spread abortion, but this cannot always be 

 adduced ; as the malady — speaking of it as we would do of a disease — 

 occurs at all seasons and in all kinds of weather, and perhaps much 

 more frequently among animals which are housed than among those 

 living in the open air without shelter of any kind. 



Neither can the influence of food be adduced as an exciting cause 

 in many outbreaks, for animals fed with the greatest care both as to 

 quality and quantity do not escape ; and as for ergotised grasses or 

 seeds, admitting that these may induce abortion — though it has never 

 been possible to produce this effect on Mares or Cows experimentally, no 

 matter what dose of the ergot of rye was administered, nor how it was 

 given — yet the most serious visitations have appeared where the 

 herbage was free from this condition, and where the animals were 

 stabled. 



Strebel, for instance, informs us that in 1878 and 1879-80, from 

 20 to 60 per cent, of the pregnant Cows in the Canton of Freiburg 

 aborted, though they were in very good cowsheds ; and Bruin 

 mentions that in November and December, 1884, and January, 1885, 

 60 per cent, of the pregnant Mares in his locality aborted, the 

 majority of the foetuses being in their envelopes, or these were ex- 

 pelled in from two to eight hours after birth, though in some instances 

 they were retained from one to four days. 



All the causes that have been adduced as operating in the production 

 of sporadic abortion, and even extensive outbreaks, will not account 

 for every mishap of this kind ; consequently, there has always been 

 something mysterious, something inscrutable and baffling, to the 

 pathologist who sought to account for their appearance and extension. 



So long ago as the end of the last century, contagion or infection 

 was believed to play the principal, if not the sole part in many out- 

 breaks ; for it was observed that when a Cow aborted in a place where 

 other pregnant Cows were kept, these would abort in succession until 

 all, or nearly all, had miscarried. Not only this, but it has often 

 happened that a newly-purchased Cow-in-calf has been introduced 

 into a farm where the Cows had always calved favourably at the 

 proper time ; and when the stranger has aborted, first one, theaj 

 another, then a third, and so on, of the others have experienced the' 

 same misfortune, and the malady has persisted in the place for con- 

 1 BrltLsh Medical Journal, February 2, 1S95, p. 278. 



