58 
ficium open so wide that a lead pencil or even one or two 
fingers could be introduced; there was also a pathological 
excretion of varying intensity. Furthermore he found in the 
majority of cases an enlarged uterus, which was generally 
asymmetrical; the uterus can be of the thickness of an arm 
and twice or thrice longer than normal. Postmorten exam- 
inations of Guillebeau found in four cases out of eight the 
cystic degeneration, complicated with lesions of the uterus, 
the cervix and the vagina. 
Tuff examined the genital organs of 14 cows and found. 
inflammatory processes of the uterus and of the oviducts, 
together with a cystic degeneration of the ovaries. 
Even if it is admitted that the cystic degeneration is 
rarely found without lesions of the uterus or of the cervix, 
it is still doubtful what kind of a connection, if any, they have. 
Can one lesion be the cause of the other, and which is the 
primary lesion, or is it accidental that they are together met 
with so often? 
Hess contends that the cystic degeneration of the ovaries 
causes the endometiitis, which again is the cause of the ster- 
ility. 
This opinion can be proved to be wrong; it is not diffi- 
cult to find out that the metritis is primary and the degen- 
eration of the ovaries is secondary; furthermore, the cure 
of the metritis means also the cure of the cystic degenera- 
tion, 
In my numerous systematic examinations of cows, one 
month after they had calved, I never found a cystic degener- 
ation of the ovaries without a considerable enlargement of 
the uterus, whose contents quite often were several liters of 
a purulent, bloody or viscous fluid. 
On the estate Damsbo I found out of 28 cows which had 
recently aborted, 8 with cysts of the ovaries, all these cows 
having also a more or less purulent metritis. In the 181 
cases of cystic degeneration mentioned above, 12 of the ani- 
