Penial Injuries 221 



into the vulva alongside the penis, abrading it and threaten- 

 ing to transfer to the abraded parts any infection included 

 within its mass. The injury can and should be prevented 

 by keeping the vulvar tuft clean by washing. 



In abattoir bulls, the penis is often found eroded, owing 

 to the withdrawal into the prepuce of loose, dirty hairs from 

 the preputial tuft, but I have not observed this in breeding 

 bulls. Some breeders attempt to prevent the pulling of 

 hairs into the prepuce by clipping away the preputial tuft. 

 This invites another, and equally important danger from 

 the multiple minute abrasions of the prepuce and glans 

 from the short hair stubs. 



"Broken penis" in the bull is often reported. It is be- 

 lieved that the penis becomes caught against the side of the 

 vulva or elsewhere and the animal at the moment of making 

 the violent copulatory thrust, doubles the organ sharply 

 upon itself, "breaking" it or otherwise causing serious in- 

 jury. Sudden and violent bending of the erected penis 

 causes such injuries to its tissues that the "broken" organ 

 remains curved or bent at an angle. That portion beyond 

 the point of injury does not become erected. Thus the ani- 

 mal is rendered useless as a breeder or the injury causes 

 severe balanitis or inflammation of the prepuce, leading to 

 adhesions so that the organ can not be protruded. Clini- 

 cally I have observed the injury following, and apparently 

 due to coitus by a large bull with a heifer. In one instance, 

 the breeder believed the penis of the bull had been injured 

 in casting him by the compression method, in which the 

 noose about the flank crosses the penis just in front of the 

 scrotum. I have cast bulls so frequently by this method, 

 without observing injury, that I could not accept his con- 

 clusions regarding the cause without important reserva- 

 tions. The injury is liable to pass unnoted for several days, 

 until the bull is brought out for breeding and is found to be 

 incapable of copulating, or capable only with difficulty. A 

 narrow vulva, sometimes accentuated by great swelling of 

 the vulvar mucosa because of severe granular venereal dis- 



