DISEAiSES OF THE NEWLY-BOKxX. 343 



the ewe. Then present the lamb to the ewe, she will at once 

 take care of it, bestowing the same amount of affection on the 

 stranger as it accords to its own offspring. 



Hbortton. 



Is the expulsion of the foetus before it is sufficiently devel- 

 oped to exist external to its parent. 



Where the lamb is not carried the full term, but is suffi- 

 ciently developed to exist for any length of time in the external 

 world, it is said to be born prematurely. 



When the foetus is dropped twenty days previous to its 

 proper time or anywhere between the period of its first concep- 

 tion and that time, the ewe issaid to have aborted. 



Abortion may occur from several causes, such as climatic 

 influences, cold rains, sudden changes in temperature, or from 

 injurious ingredients in the food-supply, over-feeding on stimu- 

 lating and easily digestible food, excessive drinking of cold 

 water, partaking of certain herbs or eating corn-fodder which is 

 mouldy or covered with smut. 



Doses of purgative medicines often are responsible for abor- 

 tion, as are injuries, sudden back slips, etc. Excitement or fear, 

 such as the chasing of pregnant ewes by dogs; the forcible tup^ 

 ping of a pregnant ewe by a ram, neglect, starvation, and many 

 similar causes, but last and the most serious of all, bacteria, 

 which, on gaining access to the vagina of a pregnant animal, 

 quickly cause this condition, and which we shall consider here 

 under the head of 



Infectious Hbortion. 



This is now recognized as a separate and distinct affection, 

 being due to the introduction of certain germs into the genital 

 passages of the pregnant female, and while experiments and in- 

 vestigations have all been conducted with a view to fix the 

 specificity of this disease as occurring in cattle, without a doubt 



