146 Diseases of the Genital Organs 



sterility. Had that been true, the plan would have had 

 merit. Later developments show clearly that cervical 

 atresia is essentially negligible as a cause of sterility. Ar- 

 tificial insemination has, therefore, only a very limited and 

 questionable place in the treatment of sterility. Diseases of 

 the vagina, cervix, and uterus which might cause sterility 

 are more readily remedied by other means than by artificial 

 insemination. Diseases of the oviducts and ovaries cannot 

 be favorably affected by the operation. Artificial insemina- 

 tion may have some value under exceptional conditions in 

 extending the breeding range of highly valued sires, and in 

 very rare cases may possibly have value in sterile females. 



Artificial Abortion 



Occasionally artificial abortion in animals becomes desir- 

 able in the economic interests of the owner. When highly 

 pedigreed females are accidentally permitted to copulate 

 with common males or with pedigreed males of a different 

 breed, the progeny is valueless and the span of the pregnancy 

 becomes a loss to the owner in so far as the production of 

 valuable progeny is concerned. Sometimes, also, a heifer 

 calf of five to ten months unexpectedly comes in estrum, 

 copulates with a bull, conceives, and, unless the pregnancy 

 is artificially interrupted, is much damaged by repression 

 of growth and development. 



No drug is known which is capable of causing a pregnant' 

 animal to abort. Ergot and other drugs have been cited as 

 ecbolics or abortifacients, but there is no reliable evidence 

 that any one of them is competent to cause abortion di- 

 rectly. Ergot, given repeatedly and in large doses, finally 

 poisons the pregnant animal, which, just prior to death, may 

 abort. Such abortion is probably indirect; the toxic effect 

 of the drug, by lowering the resistance of the body, may 

 enable the infection present in the uterus to acquire new 

 power and precipitate abortion. 



It is not known that any form of bacteria, living or dead, 

 or any of their toxins or other products, possesses any di- 

 rect ecbolic power, if by this term is meant an inherent 



