572 
«T. F. REID. 
trict where I practiced during the past year, as fully forty 
per cent, of the mares impregnated. Although such a loss of 
the foals, with the keep of the mares and the service fee of the 
sire, is very great, yet in many instances it is not all, as the 
mare occasionally is lost or fails to conceive the following 
season, and in some cases for several seasons after. 
In Europe, Fleming asserts “ that the chief loss occurs 
with cattle, and very little with mares,” but in my experience 
I have known comparatively little loss with cattle except in 
sporadic cases. This possibly may be accounted for by the 
difference in keep in the two countries. 
In attempting to discover the cause of infectious abortion, 
men are baffled by the obscurity which attends its develop¬ 
ment and the different opinions offered by those giving it any 
attention. Some authorities adduce that outbreaks start 
from a sporadic case, whether accidental or otherwise, and 
that a nervous impression is made on the mare or mares in 
close proximity to the affected one, and thus conveyed from 
one to the other until all or nearly all have aborted. Regard¬ 
ing general causes, Fleming says that the disease is most 
frequent during wet seasons when it is probably due to anae¬ 
mia, as well as to forage damaged by moisture, ergotised or 
otherwise altered. Manure scattered over the pastures and 
decomposing has also been offered as a cause. The local 
conditions to which animals are subjected cannot be adduced 
as the cause, as animals abort under every kind of regimen, 
in all conditions and irrespective of age or breed. 
The assertion that an accidental abortion occurring among 
a number of pregnant mares is competent to develop the in¬ 
fectious germ that inoculates other animals, and causes gen¬ 
eral abortion, I certainly think is unfounded. Of course an 
outbreak may first show itself in a mare that has been injured, 
as the injury might facilitate the action of the infectious germ, 
but I do not think that any injury is necessary for the pro¬ 
duction of the disease. I have frequently observed that 
where a mare running or having been kept with other preg¬ 
nant mares has received a known injury and aborted, or has 
been a regular aborter at a certain stage of pregnancy, and 
