194 CaMe Probhms. 



Such predisposing influences of old time abortion as 

 fright, sympathy, worrying, liurts, straining when mired, 

 exhausting fatigue, etc., are ruled out by the evidence, as 

 none of these account in the least for the stoppage of the 

 circ Illation, and the clear evidences of starvation — as ob- 

 served by dairymen,* in tlie emaciated condition of the 

 embryos when aborted — and alluded to by Dr. Dalton,f 

 who also states that this malady is not epidemic in New 

 York. We will add that it is not even a disease, in the 

 ordinary sense of the term ; but is the result of serious 

 structural derangement in the size and use of mammary 

 arteries — those fhat lead to the milk glands — the derange- 

 ment resulting from the engorgement and relaxation of 

 those arteries which, at their extremely enlarged size, con- 

 vey so much of the mammary blood to the udder, that not 

 enough is left to increase the necessary supply to the 

 placenta, or continue the growth of the embryo ; hence 

 its death from deficiency of nourishment, and its expul- 

 sion a necessity to save the cow. 



The engorgement and relaxation of udder-supply arteries 

 — which we find to be the cause of this malady — is of an 

 extraordinary nature, being clearly mechanical in its effects 

 on the arteries in question. And in this fact consists the 

 evidence that the disorder in these arteries, or their re- _ 

 laxed condition, results from excessive expansion, by too 

 rapid increase of blood, vi'hich is a consequence of the 

 extreme mechanical distention incident to extremely rapid 

 engorgement. So this extraordinary variety of abortion 

 results from engorgement of the arteries that supply the 

 udder glands with blood, the too great and rapid increase 

 of blood being the result of equally great and rapid in- 



=^=Iii the towns ^vherc aboillun l>r^'^■a^ls in ?''f\v York, 71 per cent of the 

 abortions occur atU'r the aixth mouth of pri'j^uancy, Avlicn much more bhtod 

 in reqiiireil by the embryo for increaKiuy: its growth and size, tlian at an early 

 stage of embryo development or pregnancy. 



I See report issued by >few York Slate Agricultural Society, Albany, 1808, 



