510 A LECTURE ON THE DISEASES INCIDENTAL TO 
propagated contagiously ; such, however, is by no means the 
generally received opinion. 
The causes of abortion may be regarded under two cha- 
racters ; namely predisposing and exciting. Among the for- 
mer I am inclined to consider severe winters succeeded by warm 
springs, hilly pasturage, the practice of allowing young stock 
and one and two-year-old bulls to run with the breeding cows, 
atmospheric influence, sudden changes, or a long continuance of 
wet weather, and, indeed, any condition likely to produce de- 
rangement of the digestive organs. As an exciting cause, 
mental influence is to be viewed as the most frequent. The 
cow, during the months of pregnancy, is a highly imaginative 
animal : this is established by the fact of a parturition or abor- 
tion taking place in the immediate neighbourhood being fre- 
quently sufficient to induce such a sympathetic influence in the 
remaining stock as in many instances to be followed by a simi- 
lar result. Animals that have been much afflicted with hoose, 
or have been the subjects of injury ; such also as have been 
choked or attacked with hoose are very likely to abort, the 
tendency being materially influenced by the existence, at the 
particular time, of any of the predisposing causes before enu- 
merated. Cattle that have been once affected are very liable 
to be again similarly attacked, though probably at a more ad- 
vanced stage of gestation : this has been observed to occur 
during successive seasons, abortion in each case taking place at 
a later period, until the animal eventually goes her full time. 
The symptoms of abortion are very commonly allowed to 
pass unnoticed ; but if the breeder be a close observer, and fre- 
quently amongst his stock, he will perceive that the cow is 
somewhat off her feed, rumination being interrupted or sus- 
pended, a decrease in the quantity of milk, an unthrifty con- 
dition of the skin, and in many instances the appearance of a 
sanguineous and glairy discharge from the vagina. 
Before alluding to treatment, I must again remind you, Gen- 
tlemen, of the numerous causes which influence or give rise to 
this disease ; and in so directing your attention, I cannot refrain 
from exposing the fallacy of those who believe in any specific 
as a preventive, alike applicable under all circumstances, whe- 
ther arising from plethora or debility, from the nature and 
situation of the pasturage, or the result of injury ; from sym- 
pathetic influence, or disease of the digestive organs. Gentle- 
men, it is needless for me further to refer to the empiricism 
attendant on the palming of such preparations upon the public; 
you, as educated men, cannot fail to see how utterly useless 
they must, in the majority of cases, prove. The only truly 
correct principle, and that on which we can hope to render 
