234 DISEASES OF THE DOMESTIC" ANIMALS 



Morphine (gr. iii-v) and hyoscine (gr. 1/25) may also be given to 

 the larger animals. 



Castration of either sex or slaughter constitutes the last resort. 

 If the trouble is of central nervous origin little can be done in the 

 way of treatment. 



Sterility or Inability to Reproduce — Barrenness. 



1. In the Male. — This condition may be caused by absence 

 of semen or obstruction (through disease) to the passage of semen 

 (inflammation about the ejaculatory ducts, tuberculosis, stricture, 

 phimosis, etc.). Scanty secretion of semen may exist in debility 

 and old age. Absence of spermatozoa occurs as a result of mastur- 

 bation; excessive copulation; disease, as tuberculosis, new-growth 

 and inflammation of the testis, epididymis and vas deferens. Debili- 

 tating disease, undescended testicle or congenital absence of testicle 

 may also lead to absence of spermatozoa. Microscopic examination 

 of the semen will alone determine this condition. ; 



2. In the Female. — Sterility accompanies anemia; general 

 debility from any cause ; obesity ; and congenital defects, as absence 

 of ovaries, tubes or womb, atresia of the tract or displacement of 

 the uterus. Acquired defects are also responsible and follow from 

 removal of ovaries, uterus or tubes, and from disease and inflam- 

 mation in the genital tract, with their results, which consist in 

 stenosis, hypertrophy, atrophy, degeneration and mechanical ob- 

 struction. Tumors and acquired displacements should also be in- 

 cluded in the above list. 



The treatment of sterility in either sex depends chiefly on re- 

 moval of the exciting cause. In the female artificial injection into 

 the uterus of semen deposited in the vagina has rarely proved suc- 

 cessful. If general or local disease can be cured the prognosis is 

 good. A careful general and local (of the generative organs) ex- 

 amination is essential to prognosis and treatment. Recently yeast 

 (1 cake of the fresh, compressed yeast dissolved in a pint of tepid 



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