FERTILITY 609 



commonly communicated by a contaminated bull in which the 

 penis and sheath are affected. Similarly a buU may become 

 diseased by serving an infected cow, and in this way vaginitis 

 may spread through an entire herd. During recent years con- 

 tagious sterihty has been very common in Switzerland and 

 Germany, and there is evidence of its existence in England. 

 Antiseptic disinfection is useful, but experience has shown that 

 even when treated infectious vagin'tis often runs a prolonged 

 course. Nevertheless, a complete cure usually takes place after 

 some months, this recovery being indicated by the cessation of 

 the muco-p:rulent discharge and the recurrence at normal 

 intervals of the cestrous periods.^ 



Deficient, excessive, or unfavourable nutrition, change of 

 environment, in-breeding, &c., as sources of infertihty, have 

 been already discussed. 



-Artificial Insemination as a Means op Over- 

 coming Sterility 



Artificial insemination as a means of overcoming certain 

 forms of sterihty has been employed by various medical men 

 from Hunter's time downwards. In the case treated by 

 Hunter himself,^ the husband of the woman experimented upon 

 was affected with hypospadias. The semen was injected into 

 the vagina, conception followed, and a child was afterwards 

 born. Sims ^ recorded a case of a woman who suffered from 

 dysmenorrhoea and a deformed uterus, and who had been 

 married for nine years without having children. Artificial in- 

 semination was resorted to, pregnancy ensued, and a child was 

 born in due time. Numerous other cases are cited by Heape * 

 and Iwanoff,^ to whose papers the reader is referred for bibho- 

 graphies of the subject. 



1 MoFadyeai), "Sterility in Cows," Jour. Royal Agric. Soc, vol. Ixx., 

 1909. 



2 This case is described by Home, Phil. Trans., 1799. (See p. 189, 

 Chapter V.) 



" Sims, Notes Clin/igues sur la Ghirurgie Uterine, Paris, 1866. 



* Heape, "The Artificial Insemination of Mammals," &c., Proc. Roy. Soc, 

 vol. Ixi., 1897. 



5 Iwanoff, "De la F^condation artifioielle chez les Mammifferes," Arch, 

 des Sciences Biologigues , vol. xii., 1907. 



2q 



