324 CATTI^B. 



turpentine twice daily in milk will act favorably, but quinine and iron 

 are to be preferred. 



But in this anaemic variety prevention is the great need. The drain- 

 age and cultivation of the dangerous soils is the main object. Until this 

 can be accomplished young and newly -purchased cattle, not yet inured to 

 the poisons, must be kept from the dangerous fields and turned only on 

 those which are already drained naturally or artificially. Further, they 

 should have an abundant ration iu which the local product of grass, hay, 

 etc. , is supplemented by grain or other seeds. Another point to be 

 guarded against is the supply of water that has drained from marshes 

 or impervious soils, rich in organic matter, as such is charged with 

 nitrites, ptomaines, etc. , which directly conduce to the disorder. Fence 

 out from all such waters, and supply from hving springs or deep wells 

 only. 



CONTAGIOUS ABORTION. 



Causes of Contagious Abortion. When an aborting cow is 

 placed in a herd that has hitherto been healthy, and shortly afterwards 

 miscarriage becomes prevalent in that herd and continues year after 

 year, in spite of the fact that all the other conditions of life in that herd 

 remain the same as before, it is manifest that the result is due to con- 

 tagion. When a bull, living in a healthy herd, has been allowed to 

 serve an aborting cow, or a cow from an aborting herd, and when the 

 members of his own herd, subsequently served by him abort in consid- 

 erable numbers, contagion may be safely inferred. Mere living in the 

 same pasture or building does not convey the infection. Cows brought 

 into the aborting herd in advanced pregnancy carry their calves to the 

 full time. But cows served by the infected bull, or that have had the 

 infection conveyed by the tongue or tail of other animals, or by their 

 own, or that have had the external genitals brought iu contact with 

 wall, fence, rubbing post, litter, or fioor previously soiled by the infected 

 animals, will be liable to suffer. The Scottish abortion committee found 

 that when healthy, pregnant cows merely stood with or near aborting 

 cows they escaped, but when a piece of cotton wool lodged for twenty 

 minutes in the vagina of the aborting cow was afterwards inserted into 

 the vagina of a healthy, pregnant cow or sheep, the latter invariably 

 aborted within a month. So Roloff relates that in two large stables at 

 Erfurt, without any direct intercommunication, but filled with cows fed 



