Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. IX, No. i 
16 
it is possible that the disease is in fact primarily a disease of the embryo 
or fetus rather than of its mother. The mother, to be sure, is the source 
of infection. Possibly, however, if a large enough number of virulent 
abortion bacilli are poured into her body from her udder, antibodies of 
sufficient potency may develop in her blood to protect her fetus. Should 
this prove true, good results in the treatment of infected herds may be 
expected from injections into the mother, possibly a short time before 
she conceives or early during pregnancy, of cultures of abortion bacilli; 
and it is possible in this case that the more virulent the cultures are and 
the more abundant the material injected the better the results will be. 
CONCLUSION 
To prevent the further spread of abortion disease, owners of uninfected 
cattle should be instructed to have careful agglutination tests for abor¬ 
tion disease made of all cattle they propose to introduce into their herds; 
and owners of infected herds should be taught that aborted fetuses, also 
the afterbirth and discharge from the vaginas of infected cows, are 
infected with abortion bacilli and must therefore be disposed of with care. 
The treatment of individual cows which have aborted or failed to clean 
properly after parturition must be left largely to the good judgment of 
the practicing veterinarian. If the uterus is given a proper chance to 
heal after it has been damaged by an abortion or a retained afterbirth, 
the abortion bacilli in it need occasion little worry, as they will rapidly 
disappear of their own accord, and it is very questionable whether repar¬ 
ative processes are not retarded rather than facilitated by douching with 
germicidal solutions which are strong enough to kill bacteria in a reason¬ 
able length of time, or the length of time during which they may remain 
undiluted in the uterus. Douching is no doubt good practice, but it is 
desirable that there be a flooding out, a washing out, a real physical 
cleaning of the uterus; and this can best be done with solutions which 
are healing rather than germicidal, soothing and not irritating. 
