GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE AND ABORTION IN CATTLE. 7 
When the nodules have become quite numerous, they tend to 
become arranged in longitudinal, parallel rows corresponding to the 
longitudinal folds of the vulvar mucosa, the nodules being located 
upon the summits of the rugae, emphasized and rendered more dis- 
tinct by the inflammation of the mucosa, which causes it to swell, 
harden, and thicken, and forces it into marked folds. The individual 
nodules change in appearance. They increase little in size and 
projection. The vascular areas about their bases become more 
deeply injected and the vascularity may extend more or less com- 
pletely over the surface of the nodules, so that some of them appear 
as bright-red elevations or as petechia? on the Vulvar mucosa. 
The mucosa itself, between the nodules, becomes involved in the 
disease, is injected, red, and swollen. With the advent of definite 
irritation of the vulvar mucosa, a slight muco-purulent vulvar dis- 
charge ensues. It is not at first marked. Many say it is not present, 
or rather that the discharge noted is normal. There is, however, a 
visible discharge which so mats together the vulvar tuft and sur- 
rounding hairs in the heifer calf that in opening the vulva for inspec- 
tion the examiner must frequently break down the adhesions between 
the surrounding hairs before the vulvar lips may be parted. Some 
contend that this is normal, but in experiment heifer calves observed 
by us such vulvar discharge has not appeared until infection had 
ensued. Herbivorous females of other species do not ordinarily 
present muco-purulent or other vulvar discharges. It would accord- 
ingly appear that mucous secretions normally occurring in the genital 
tube of heifer calves, heifers, and cows should be disposed of by the 
organs in a manner which would prevent their becoming conspicu- 
ous externally. 
Up to the date of puberty or estrum the nodular venereal disease 
of heifer calves generally behaves essentially as a dormant malady, 
without material significance for the immediate welfare of the animal. 
Various observers may and do hold divergent views. Numerous 
cases are viewed by many veterinarians as sound because of the 
mildness of the symptoms, but the nodules are there, and so long as 
these are admitted as the deciding lesion of the malady the heifer 
must be regarded as infected. 
Copulation is the signal for the awakening of the dormant infection, 
which behaves like other venereal disorders in animals and man under 
the stimulus of sexual contact. Within 24 hours after copulation 
the evidences of sexual irritation are marked. The mucosa becomes 
scarlet, swollen, tender, and in a large proportion of cases there is a 
very notable muco-purulent discharge which adheres to the vulvar 
tuft and soils the under surface of the tail and the skin of the but- 
tocks and the perineum. 
The vulvar lips frequently become markedly swollen and edema- 
tous. If the vulvar lips be parted, the vulvar mucosa is seen to be 
