GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 7 



When the nodules have become quite numerous they tend to 

 become arranged in longitudinal, parallel rows corresponding to the 

 longitudinal folds of the vulvar mucosa, the nodules being located 

 upon the summits of the rugae, emphasized and rendered more dis- 

 tinct by the inflammation of the mucosa, which causes it to swell, 

 harden, and thicken, and forces it into marked folds. The individual 

 nodules change in appearance. They increase little in size and 

 projection. The vascular areas about their bases become more 

 deeply injected and the vascularity may extend more or less com- 

 pletely over the surface of the nodules, so that some of them appear 

 as bright-red elevations or as petechia? on tha Vulvar mucosa. 



The mucosa itself, between the nodules, becomes involved in the 

 disease, is injected, red, and swollen. With the advent of definite 

 irritation of the vulvar mucosa, a slight miico-purulent vulvar dis- 

 charge ensues. It is not at first marked. Many say it is not present, 

 or rather that the discharge noted is normal. There is, however, a 

 visible discharge which so mats together the vulvar tuft and sur- 

 rounding hairs in the heifer calf that in opening the vulva for inspec- 

 tion the examiner must frequently break down the adhesions between 

 the surrounding hairs before the vulvar lips may be parted. Some 

 contend that this is normal, but in experiment heifer calves observed 

 by us such vulvar discharge has not appeared until infection had 

 ensued. Herbivorous females of other species do not ordinarily 

 present muco-purulent or other vulvar discharges. It would accord- 

 ingly appear that mucous secretions normally occurring in the genital 

 tube of heifer calves, heifers, and cows should be disposed of by the 

 organs in a manner which would prevent their becoming conspicu- 

 ous externally. 



Up to the date of puberty or estrum the nodular venereal disease 

 of heifer calves generally behaves essentially as a dormant malady, 

 without material significance for the immediate welfare of the animal. 

 Various observers may and do hold divergent views. Numerous 

 cases are viewed by many veterinarians as sound because of the 

 mildness of the symptoms, but the nodules are there, and so long as 

 these are admitted as the deciding lesion of the malady the heifer 

 must be regarded as infected. 



Copulation is the signal for the awakening of the dormant infection, 

 which behaves like other venereal disorders in animals and man under 

 the stimulus of sexual contact. Within 24 hours after copulation 

 the evidences of sexual irritation are marked. The mucosa becomes 

 scarlet, swollen, tender, and in a large proportion of cases there is a 

 very notable muco-purulent discharge which adheres to the vulvar 

 tuft and soils the under surface of the tail and the skin of the but- 

 tocks and the perineum. 



The vulvar lips frequently become markedly swollen and edema- 

 tous. If the vulvar lips be parted, the vulvar mucosa is seen to be 



