51 
It surely must be admitted that the follicular vaginitis 
ought to produce as much sterility in heifers as it is sup- 
posed to do in cows. Nielsen (Sorring) describes the lesions 
of the granular disease as they are seen in the vagina of the 
cow and on the preputium and penis of the bull; he consid- 
ers them as the most important causes of sterility. This, as 
I mentioned before is not justifiable, since lesions so severe 
as he describes are quite rare, and because the so infected 
cows conceive quite often from the infecting coitus or very 
soon after. 
In the last 14 years I examined 30 to 40 bulls from two 
to four times yearly, and I found only two cases of inflam- 
mation of the preputium which forced the animals to a tem- 
porary inactivity. One of these cases which happened in 
February, 1907 was very interesting. The animal was two 
years old, and a quite satisfactory breeding animal. The 
owner had douched his preputium and his penis after the 
bull had covered a cow with infectious abortion; the tube, 
however, had been used on the same day on a cow with a 
purulent metritis. The bull became infected, his preputium 
showed inflammation and a slight discharge. In that stage 
he infected six cows, which all contracted a vaginitis of dif- 
ferent intensity. Two cows of his own stable had swelling of 
the vulva, a membrane of the vaginal mucosa and an abund- 
ant purulent discharge; a third cow acquired a distinct fol- 
licular vaginitis. Three cows in two other stables became 
affected with vaginal inflammations, two of them having 
croupous membranes. A seventh cow became infected 
through her neighbor. None of the cows however con- 
tracted a metritis, and all of them recovered inside of 14 
days, becoming pregnant afterwards. 
During my work as practitioner I have not seen any 
other cases of transmission through the bull in 21 years, nor 
do I have reports of this kind from the breeding societies, 
infectious abortion of course, excepted, which is often 
reported as being transmitted through the bull. 
