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mals had aborted, one had a pyometra, and of the fifteen, 
which had acquired the cysts in four to twelve months after 
the parturition, the majority had been sick with a septic 
metritis shortly after the delivery. 
That these metritis cases were caused by an infection in 
connection with the parturition I take for granted. But also 
many cases where later inflammatory processes on the cer- 
vix and on the orificium were found, can only be explained 
by an infection during or shortly after the parturition. 
The cysts are very rarely formed shortly after the calv- 
ing; it generally takes two to three weeks, about to the 
time of the first estrum. In the very numerous cases where 
I examined cows for a metritis in connection with the 
calving I never found cysts in the ovaries. As I said before, 
they are formed, if early, two to three weeks after the deliv- 
ery, but can also be formed very much later. According to 
Hess it is not very uncommon to find cysts in the ovaries 
of heifers or even of young calves. 
It is easy to prove that the cystic degenerations are not 
only secondary lesions, but also that they are caused by 
the primary metritis. 
A timely and proper treatment of the metritis puts an 
end to the cystic degeneration of the ovaries, so that cows 
with nymphomania are nearly never seen again in herds 
where the treatment mentioned is carried out. Even old 
cases are cured with the successful treatment of the chronic 
metritis. 
Therefore, I think it probable that the different lesions 
and affections of the uterus are capable of producing, 
directly or indirectly, a cystic degeneration of the ovaries. 
One theory is that the inflammatory processes of the metra 
encroach through the oviducts upon the ovaries; in post- 
mortem examinations, however, an oophoritis is seldom 
found to be connected with the usual cystic degeneration of 
the ovaries. The only explanation then is a reflex action, 
