532 Diseases of the Genital Organs 



which caused the abortion existed long prior to the final dis- 

 aster, and they continue indefinitely afterward. Quarantine 

 does not annul the peril prior to abortion, nor does it render 

 the animal safe after the common duration of quarantine 

 has expired. Some of these advisers direct that an aborter 

 shall be quarantined until all discharge ceases, but no 

 definition of "discharge" is given. Long after a cow 

 has aborted and all signs of discharge, as commonly ac- 

 cepted, have ceased, the cervical canal or uterine cavity may, 

 and often does, contain a few drops, or quarts, or gallons of 

 pus. The cow with a few quarts of pus in her uterus is a 

 safer animal in a herd than one without visible or notable 

 discharge but which has in the uterus or cervical canal a few 

 drops of virulent pus associated with inflammation of the 

 uterine or cervical mucosa. The cow with large volumes of 

 pus which is being discharged does not generally come in 

 estrum. In the dairy the pus chiefly drops into the gutter 

 and disappears. Some of it reaches the milk, but not as 

 much when the cow is in the herd as when she is in quaran- 

 tine, because in the latter state she is neglected. 



The cow with a few drops of pus in the uterus or cervix 

 ovulates and copulates. Coitus intensifies the disease in her 

 genital tract and endangers the genital health of the bull. 

 Such a cow either fails to conceive or conceives only after 

 repeated copulations, with undue sex strain and infection 

 dangers to both cow and bull. If she conceives, the infec- 

 tion in the cervical canal or uterus leads to the death of the 

 embryo or fetus ; or the pregnancy continues to, or near to 

 full term, a sick calf is born, and the cow has metritis, often 

 associated with retained fetal membranes. Ordinary quar- 

 antine — ^the isolation of aborters from pregnant cows — 

 neither adds security to nor hastens recovery from the me- 

 tritis and cervicitis, but the layman, ignorant of the nature 

 of the disease, is misled into the assumption that quarantine 

 has therapeutic value. As a matter of fact quarantine, as 

 ordinarily conducted with aborting cows, is a therapeutic 

 vice. The cows are denied the food, housing and care con- 

 ducive to the spontaneous recovery or amelioration of dis- 



