48 
treated after a while on account of a very persistent, puru- 
lent and catarrhal endometritis which in every case started 
with a puerperal infection. Four of the cows had degenera- 
tion of the ovaries and distinct symptoms of nymphomania. 
Twelve out of the seventeen cows became pregnant again. 
There was no good explanation for these uterus infec- 
tion in the last case; therefore one is inclined to consider the 
possibility of an infection through the bull, especially as the 
first two cows which did not conceive again were bred to 
the bull of the local breeding society. However, in the stable 
where this bull was kept, no cases of sterility or metritis 
happened, nor among the other cows of other stables where 
this bull was used, at least not to any extent. 
There is no doubt that an infection can be carried by the 
cohabitation, as the many cases of infectious abortion or 
granular vaginitis in cows, and the inflammations of the pre- 
putium and of the penis in the bull clearly indicate. 
The question is: Should there be any importance attached 
to this method of infection, and in what relation does it stand 
to the sterility of cows? Is it possible to explain the major- 
ity of such ailments, as Nielsen (Sorring) does, on the 
ground of a follicular vaginitis or metritis, which is admit- 
tedly carried through the bull? 
On the basis of my rather extensive observation I must 
answer in the negative, since in our part of the country the 
infection through the bull is absolutely insignificant. I do 
not. consider here the infection with contagious abortion, 
which, of course, is a separate question. 
Considering the conditions as I found them in the many 
herds where I attended regularly to the treatment, and 
where I examined nearly all the cows one month after par- 
turition, I must say that a considerable part of the uterine 
diseases was present before the cows were bred to the bull 
again. Furthermore it can be shown that the majority of 
the treated animals did not show any heat symptoms, or 
were not bred at all, so that in these cases an infection from 
