General Infections of the Genitalia of Sheep and Goats 721 



cadavers, although perhaps they did so at an early date. 

 The ewes were generally unthrifty. This may have been 

 due partly to the food, which, though abundant, did not ap- 

 pear to be first-class. A formidable objection to attributing 

 the bad condition of the ewes to low-grade food was the fact 

 that the ewes with which the Tunis ram had mated were in 

 good flesh and vigorous, although they were kept in the same 

 flock throughout and were handled identically, except that 

 they had conceived a few days earlier to a different ram. 



Of the 223 ewes bred to the Shropshire rams 25 (11 per 

 cent.) perished. Some succumbed after the fetus had per- 

 ished and macerated in the uterus ; others died at virtually 

 full term, the fetus being fully developed but showing evi- 

 dences of disease which proved fatal to it at, or slightly prior 

 to, the death of the ewe. Other ewes died after parturition 

 or abortion. The mortality in the ewes was apparently the 

 result of a general sepsis rather than of local genital lesions. 

 That is, the genital lesions were macroscopically of a com- 

 paratively mild degree and failed to impress the observer as 

 being in themselves extremely perilous. 



In general the badly diseased ewes suffered from dysen- 

 tery. The feces were very thin, fetid, and black. No cause 

 for the dysentery other than the genital infection was rec- 

 ognizable. Its general clinical character reminded us of the 

 dysentery occurring in septic metritis in pregnant and puer- 

 peral cows, already described. The disease began early in 

 pregnancy and gained constantly in force until pregnancy 

 had terminated, when some animals, though not all, gradu- 

 ally improved. Some which were not pregnant, but perhaps 

 had been, though the embryo had perished, continued to fail 

 and eventually died in extreme emaciation without showing 

 marked genital or other lesions. Those which perished 

 after lambing or aborting generally showed metritis with 

 accumulations of exudates varying in volume, color and 

 consistency. 



The expulsion of the fetuses, dead or alive, viable or 

 mortally ill, was tardy and atonic. The ewes were evidently 

 weak. Vigorous expulsive efforts were wanting. The fun- 

 46 



