166 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



the same way, abortion prevailed for years in the one, while not a sin- 

 gle case occurred in the other. Galtier finds that the virus from the 

 aborting cow causes abortions in the sow, ewe, goat, rabbit, and 

 guinea pig, and that if it has been intensified by passing through 

 either of the two last-named animals it will affect also the mare, bitch, 

 and cat. 



It does not appear that it is always the same organism which causes 

 contagious abortion. In France, Nocard found in the aborting mem- 

 branes and the mucous membrane cocci, or globular bodies, singly 

 or in chains, and a very delicate rod-shaped organism by which the 

 disease was propagated and which survived in the womb through the 

 interval between successive pregnancies. The Scottish commission 

 found as many as five separate kinds of bacteria. Bang, in Denmark, 

 found a very delicate rpd-shaped organism showing its most active 

 growth at two different depths in nutrient gelatin, and which produced 

 abori ion in twenty-one days when inoculated on the susceptible preg- 

 nant cow. In America, Chester, of Delaware, and Moore, of New 

 York, constantly found organisms differing somewhat in the two 

 States, but evidently of the same group with the colon germ {Bacillus 

 coli communis). These were never found in the healthy pregnant 

 womb, but in the cow that had aborted they continued to live in that 

 organ for many months after the loss of the fetus. 



We may reasonably conclude that any micro-organism which can 

 live in or on the lining membrane of the womb producing a catarrhal 

 inflammation, and which can be transferred from animal to animal 

 without losing its vitality or potency, is of necessity a cause of con- 

 tagious abortion. As viewed, therefore, from the particular germ 

 that may be present, we must recognize not one form only of conta- 

 gious abortion, but several, each due to its own infecting germ, and each 

 differing from others in minor particulars, like duration of incubation, 

 infection of the general system, and the like. In Europe the germs 

 discovered seem to affect the general system much more than do those 

 found in America. Bang's germ caused abortion in twenty-one days; 

 the New York germ, inoculated at service, often fails to cause abor- 

 tion before the fifth or seventh month. 



Symptoms of abortion. — As occurring during the first two or three 

 months of gestation, symptoms may escape detection, and unless the 

 aborted product is seen the fact of abortion may escape notice. Some 

 soiling of the tail with mucus, blood, and the waters may be observed 

 or the udder may show extra firmness, and in the virgin heifer or dry 

 cow the presence of a few drops of milk may be suggestive, or the 

 fetus and its membranes may be found in the gutter or elsewhere as 

 a mere clot of blood or as a membranous ball in which the forming 

 body of the fetus is found. In water the villi of the outer membrane 

 (chorion, PI. XII) float out, giving it a characteristically shaggy 

 appearance. 



