164 DISEASES OP CATTLE. 



Keeping in stalls that slope too much behind (over 2 inches) acts in 

 the same way, the compression due to lying and the gravitation back- 

 ward proving more than a predisposed cow can safely bear. 



Deep gutters behind the stalls, into which one or both hind limbs 

 slip unexpectedly, strain the loins and jar the body and womb most 

 injuriously. Slippery stalls in which the flooring boards are laid 

 longitudinally in place of transversely, and on which no cleats or 

 other device is adopted to give a firm foothold, are almost equally 

 dangerous. Driving on icy ground or through a narrow doorway 

 where the abdomen is liable to be jammed are other common causes. 

 Offensive odors undoubtedly cause abortion. To understand this one 

 must take into account the preternaturally acute sense of smell pos- 

 sessed by cattle. By this sense the bull instantly recognizes the 

 pregnant cow and refrains from disturbing her, while man, with all 

 his boasted skill and precise methods, finds it difficult to come to a 

 just conclusion. The emanations from a cow in heat, however, will 

 instantly draw the bull from a long distance. Carrion in the pas- 

 ture fields or about slaughterhouses near by, the emanations from 

 shallow graves, dead rats or chickens about the barns, and dead 

 calves, the product of prior abortions, are often chargeable with the 

 occurrence of abortions. Aborting cows often fail to expel the after- 

 birth, and if this remains hanging in a putrid condition it is most 

 injurious to pregnant cows in the near vicinity. So with retained 

 afterbirth in other cows after calving. That some cows kept in filthy 

 stables or near-by slaughterhouses may become inured to the odors and 

 escape the evil results is no disproof of the injurious effects so often 

 seen in such cases. 



The excitement, jarring, and jolting of a railroad journey will often 

 cause abortion, especially as the cow nears the period of calving, and 

 the terror or injury of railway or other accidents prove incomparably 

 worse. 



All irritant poisons cause abortions by the disorder and inflamma- 

 tion of the digestive organs, and if such agents act also on the kidneys 

 or womb, the effect is materially enhanced. Powerful purgatives or 

 diuretics should never be administered to the pregnant cow. 



During pregnancy the contact of the expanding womb with the 

 paunch, just beneath it, and its further intimate connection through 

 nervous sympathy with the whole digestive system, leads to various 

 functional disorders, and especially to a morbid craving for unnatural 

 objects of food. In the cow this is shown in the chewing of bones, 

 pieces of wood, iron bolts,' articles of clothing, lumps of hardened 

 paint, etc. An unsatisfied craving of this kind, producing constant 

 excitement of the nervous system, will strongly conduce to abortion. 

 How much more so if the food is lacking in the mineral matter, and 

 especially the phosphates necessary for the building up of the body of 

 both dam and offspring, to say nothing of that drained off in every 



