SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
353 
Dr. Ferguson should think any man of good common sense would know 
better than breed that way. 
Di. Charles worth hardly thought the breeding had anything to do with it, as 
he knew two fast trotters bred just that way. 
Dr. Hillock : A poor way to breed indeed, but I think Dr. Gribble’s cases 
one of accident, rather than due to the relationship of sire and dam. 
Dr. Brenton: In-breeding has produced some of our best stock, but thought 
the cases mentioned to be a little too much so. 
Dr. Gribble : I would state that Case No. 4 stood at a rack eating hay, and 
never after my arrival made one single expulsive effort. I have never before 
met a case of that kind. 
This subject was well discussed, and finally drifted into the subject of 
breeding. 
Dr. Torrence : Has any member present ever had experience in the use of 
impregnators ? 
Dr. Brenton : I would like to know what an impregnator was used for any¬ 
way ; there is no sense in it, for if os uteri be dilated sufficient to get in the 
impregnator then the spermatozoon could pass in. 
Dr. Cotton : My experience has been that those mares that I have examined 
that would not breed have been too loose and large, instead of too small. 
Dr. Howe had known mares bred time and time again to different stallions 
all to no purpose, when some old scrub horse would cover her once and ffet her 
with foal. 
Dr. Thompson: This opening of mares, as it is called, is a great humbug. 
Every stableman thinks himself capable of performing it. 
Dr. Gribble knew a barn where a stallion was kept, and sixty mares served 
this season. Groom had informed him that he had found it necessary to open 
up over forty of them. He charged fifty cents. Probably this latter fact had 
something to do with the necessities of the case. 
Dr. Hillock could not see how an impregnator could be of any service at all, 
unless probably it be a mare with a loose, flabby cervix, and folds of the mem¬ 
brane fell over the os uteri. 
Dr. Ferguson : Of course you will all admit that it is of service in some 
cases to expand the os, but if it be open large enough to pass in a lead pencil 
that was sufficient to bring about conception, and no expansion was necessary. 
Dr. Charlesworth had used impregnators, and found them of no use what¬ 
ever. 
Dr. Thaborne could agree with the doctor who had just spoken, and he had 
also used them to no benefit. 
Dr. Torrence had know a mare bred several times with no result. A. V. S. 
had examined the animal and claimed a ruptured uterus. He (Dr. Torrence) 
had also been called to examine, but could find no rupture but simply a corru¬ 
gated surface at the junction of the fallopian tubes, due he thought to a former 
pregnancy. In his opinion, so far as the uterus was concerned the mare was 
capable of breeding. 
Dr. Thompson: It is a recognized fact that spermatozoa will not pass over 
a congested surface, and from that cause the operation of opening up would be 
a detriment instead of a benefit. 
