CHAPTER XXVI. 

 DISEASES OP THE GENEEATITE AND TJEIirAEY OEGANS. 



ABLOBTION INVEESIOIT OF THE WOMB GABGET PAETtT- 



MENT OK PUEEPBEAL FEVEE CYSTITIS, OE INFLAMMATION 



OF THE BLADDEE. 



A POETioiT of the more ordinary diseases of the generative 

 system have been described in the Chapters devoted to the 

 treatment of sheep during the different seasons of the year. 



Aboetion. — Abortion is unusual among sheep in our 

 country ; and when it occurs, is usually produced by some 

 violence, such as the hooking of a cow, the kick of a wanton 

 colt, the heavy sidewise blow inflicted by the horns of a 

 cross ram as he forces his way impatiently up to the rack or 

 feeding-trough, or the like. Severe running, leaping, or the 

 rough, careless handling of the operator for hoof-rot, some- 

 times produces it. There seems to be an occasional ewe 

 which is habitually subject to it from some unknown cause. 

 Mr. Youatt and Mr. Spooner both mention that it is thought 

 sometimes to occur in England in consequence of eating salt. 

 The constant habit of feeding salt freely at all periods of 

 the year, during my whole life, without, so far as could be 

 reasonably judged, produciag such an effect in a single 

 instance, leads one wholly to discredit this hypothesis. Mr. 

 Spooner says : — " But what causes it more than anything else 

 is the unlimited use of turnips and succulent food." I have 

 no experience in the "unlimited" winter feeding of any green 

 food ; but I have fed breeding ewes about a poimd of turnips 

 per head, sometimes a trifle more, daily, during their entire 

 pregnancy for many years; and by comparing them with 

 flocks about me restricted to dry feed, I have always been 

 satisfied that a moderate supply of green feed tended decidedly 

 to prevent abortion.* 



* Mr. Youatt gives another singular cause of abortion — "continued intercourse 

 with the ram after tlie period of gestation has considerably advanced ;" and he says : 



