ARTIFICIAL IMPREGNATION. 



Undoubtedly efficient in some cases, artificial insemination has 

 been advocated as a widely applicable remedy for sterilitj', ap- 

 parently upon the theory that sterility is usually based upon 

 mechanical impediment. 



Artificial insemination is an easy and successful operation in 

 fertile mares and other females with readily penetrable os uteri. 

 It is difiicult of application in the cow because of the narrow, 

 tortuous, obstructed cervical canal. It is a valuable remedy in 

 cases due to physical impediments to natural insemination, in so 

 far as obstacles are surmountable by this means. It is incon- 

 ceivable, in the present state of our knowledge, how the opera- 

 tioli can otherwise exert a favorable influence upon sterility, 

 unless we admit that in some cases, owing to nervous causes, 

 insemination without copulation, by avoiding the nerve-reflexes 

 of that act, may favor fertilization. This has not been shown. 



Some exaggerated statements have been made regarding its 

 efiBciency. It has been asserted that 50 %, 60 %, or more, of 

 mares, taken in large numbers, regardless of the presence, near- 

 ness or remoteness of estrum, will be fertilized by this process. 

 Upon its face, the contention is absurd. There is a belief, to 

 which some embryologists have- lent weight, that spermatozoa 

 will .live for days and weeks in the genital tube awaiting the ap- 

 pearance of an ovum. We have found no convincing data, how- 

 ever, to indicate that, in a fertile animal, coming regularly in 

 estrum and artificially inseminated shortly after a normal estrual 

 period, the spermatozoa have remained in the genital canal until 

 the next ovulation and induced fertilization. If the mares are 

 fertile and the artificial insemination is carefully made at the 

 proper time in relation to ovulation, there is no reason to doubt 

 that 60 % or 100 % may be fertilized. 



In occlusion of the cervical canal, in deformities and defects of 

 the OS uteri, which may inhibit or render uncertain the passage 

 of the spermatozoa into the uterine cavity, artificial insemination 

 con.stitutes a rational and valuable remedy. In some diseases of 

 the vagina and of the vaginal portion of the uterus, artificial 

 insemination offers possibilities which should not be ignored. 

 In fecto-vagiual fistula and in rupture of the perineum, where 



