370 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO ZOOLOGICAL ANATOMY. 
By JAMES MERCER, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Sur- 
geons ; Lecturer on Anatomy ; and President of the Edin- 
burgh Examining Board of the Royal College of Veterinary 
Surgeons , tyc. fyc. 
PART XI.— Case of Inflammation, Induration , and Ulceration of 
the Os and Cervix Uteri, inducing Sterility in the Cow. 
[Continued from p. 37.] 
In the rural economy of this country, a deservedly high degree 
of importance is attached to the breeding and cultivation of our 
native breeds of neat cattle ; and it is, indeed, perplexing and 
annoying to that breeder who, at much sacrifice of time, labour, 
and expense, finds that his best efforts prove of no avail, and that 
he is doomed to disappointment, from a state of circumstances per- 
fectly within human control, were they but better known and more 
fully investigated. 
Instances of sterility in the females of all our domesticated ani- 
mals are circumstances by no means of unfrequent occurrence, and 
too often, and perhaps too long, has the explanation of such been 
deemed beyond human knowledge. Such conditions have often 
been found, indeed, in the female of the human race, and were 
also looked upon as being incomprehensible and incurable; but 
the rapid progress made in the investigation of diseases, and in the 
exploration of the morbid states of the deeper-seated cavities, by 
means of a physical and ocular examination, has brought to light 
many of these hitherto incomprehensible phenomena, and has 
placed them entirely within our control. 
A very common cause of sterility in the human female has been 
shewn to depend on some morbid condition of the os and cervix 
uteri, and which state of parts is found to be easily within medi- 
cal control ; and it cannot be doubted but that many of the same 
cases in the lower animals depend upon the same condition. I 
here put out of consideration all such cases of sterility as may de- 
pend on a morbid state of the lining membrane, or the substance 
of the walls of the uterus, the cornua uteri, or those of the ovaria, 
considering that those consequent on a change in the os uteri are 
by far the most important in a practical point of view, and they 
are by far the most common in practice. 
It is, indeed, to be regretted that, notwithstanding all the zeal 
for veterinary science displayed by our veterinary surgeons in all 
matters connected with the diseases of the horse, comparatively 
