5i6 Diseases of the Genital Organs 



nizes no identity, continuity, or causal relationship. Each 

 must then be handled separately as distinct maladies, in- 

 stead of dealing with the entire list as one group, each hav- 

 ing a continuity with the others. 



As in wound infection, so in the infections in which abor- 

 tion occurs, while no limit can be placed upon the number of 

 microparasites which may act as the causal agent, certain 

 varieties are commonest. Thus in abortion, in one area, the 

 B. abortus may be the predominant cause; in another, a 

 streptococcus ; and, in a third, a spirillum. In a given ani- 

 mal or outbreak, B. abortus may be the cause, but in abor- 

 tion generally it is merely a cause. Some believers in the 

 specific character of abortion, when forced by recorded 

 facts to admit that abortion may be, and is, due to various 

 organisms, attempt to evade the difficulty by proposing the 

 name "abortion disease" or "Bang's disease" instead of the 

 equally misleading terms of "contagious," "infectious," or 

 "epizootic" abortion. But that does not help matters. It is 

 still desirable to learn how large a part of the abortions are 

 evidently due to the B. abortus, and how much to other or- 

 ganisms. 



The second conception of the nature of abortion permits 

 the handling of the group of infections as a whole. The 

 losses can be minimized only by breaking or weakening the 

 endless chain of infection at its most vulnerable point, 

 which, it is held, is at the commencement of the life of the 

 individual. It has been advised that the genital organs of 

 both sexes should be as clean as practicable at the time of 

 copulation in order to favor conception. When fertilization 

 has occurred, it is important that the uterine cavity be clean, 

 so that metritis and infection of the fetus may be avoided. 

 When the calf is born it should be so handled that the infec- 

 tion it may have acquired in the uterus shall be restrained 

 or eliminated, and that no fresh infection shall menace the 

 calf through contaminated milk or other foods, or by inti- 

 mate association with badly diseased calves. For example, 

 the veterinarian handling cervicitis sees before him unmis- 

 takable and severe inflammation due to some form or forms 



