6i6 Diseases of the Genital Organs 



Cervicitis is the result of bacterial invasion of the cervical 

 mucosa. The origin of the infection and its date of invasion 

 have not been fully determined. Clinicians know well that 

 heifers conceive with greater difficulty than cows. That is, 

 the average number of copulations essential to pregnancy 

 is greater by 50 to 100 per cent, than is required for cows. 

 There is present some form of temporary interference with 

 conception, which is ultimately eluded and pregnancy en- 

 sues. As a rule, also, abortion and retained fetal mem- 

 branes occur in heifers in first pregnancy 50 to 100 per 

 cent, more frequently than in cows. These two conditions 

 we know are referable to an infection radiating from the 

 cervical end of the uterus, and it appears quite justifiable 

 to conclude that in those cases where recognizable fertiliza- 

 tion has failed these conditions are parallel. Either the 

 cervicitis present inhibits fertilization for a time, or fertili- 

 zation occurs and the cervical infection works destruction 

 so promptly that estrum recurs in its regular cycle or at a 

 later date. 



When clinical examination of a sterile heifer is made, 

 ovarian or tubal disease is recognized in only a minority of 

 cases. When exploration of the cervical canal is undertaken, 

 it is found abnormally tortuous and difficult of passage be- 

 cause the bases of the mucous folds have become sclerotic 

 and hypertrophied. Probably there is a bit of muco-pus in 

 the cervical canal. The diagnosis of cervicitis is unescap- 

 able, but its source and the date of invasion are not wholly 

 clear. I cannot logically separate the source and date of 

 invasion in these cases from those of abortion and retained 

 fetal membranes. The undeniable clinical fact, that, in a 

 herd well saturated with genital infections, the heifers abort 

 50 to 100 per cent, more frequently than cows, though all 

 are kept under identical conditions in the same stable or field 

 and are bred to the same bull, testifies that the heifers ar- 

 rive at breeding age with the infection resident in the 

 cervix. That is, if in a given herd the observed rate of the 

 expulsion of fetal cadavers in cows is 10 per cent, and in 

 heifers 20 per cent., though kept and bred alike, at least 50 



