144 Veterinary Obstetrics 



common in improperly kept stallions. Spinola (Handbuch der 

 spec. Pathol. 1858, II Bd.) records this vice in the bull. 



The stallion has an erection, the penis is moved up and down, 

 imitating coitus, until finally an ejaculation of semen occurs. In 

 the bull, the ejaculation is induced by an erection and the alternate 

 protrusion and withdrawal of the penis. This is largely seen in 

 idle males which are closely confined, over fed and sparingly used 

 for breeding and in track stallions when sexual debility is 

 brought about by hard work. It is a question whether the 

 Onanism causes the impotence or the sexual weaknesses induces 

 the masturbation. 



Corrections may be brought about by such feeding, exercise and 

 other care as will maintain the general vigor of the animal and, 

 as far as possible, he should have something to divert his atten- 

 tion and exert a favorable psychic influence. Moderate work or 

 exercise and judicious feeding, or, in animals which cannot be 

 worked or artifically exercised, the allowance of freedom in a 

 commodious paddock, or, still better, in a properly enclosed pa,st- 

 ure, and especially in company with pregnant females^ tends 

 largely to prevent or cure the vice. Once the habit has become 

 fixed, it should be prevented by a shield so arranged as to cause 

 pain whenever the penis is protruded and thus prohibit erection. 

 It is to be constantly viewed as a vice of idleness and debility, 

 and it must be remembered that any and all remedies must fail 

 in their aim until the return to normal vigor is attained. 



II. Defective Secretions of the Accessory Glands. 



Ba.ss and Furbinger (Deutsche Zeit.schr. f. _Th. Med. B. XX,- 

 page 147) claim that the absence of the prostate secretions leads- 

 to an immobility and loss of vigor in the spermatozoa. The gen- 

 eral belief of investigators is that the secretions of all the acces- 

 sory glands — the seminal vesicles, the prostate and Cowper's 

 glands — when added to the semen, tend to stimulate the move- 

 ments of the spermatozoa, invigorating them and prolonging their 

 life, thus acting as an important accessory in the phenomenon of 

 fertilization. How often sterility may be due to disease or im- 

 proper function of these glands is not known. 



III. Physical Inability to Copulate. 

 I. Arrested Development of the Penis, which we have al- 



