CYSTIC OVARIES AND STERILITY.* 
By Edw. A. Cahill, V.M.D., Canonsburg, Pa. 
There is probably no part of veterinary medicine which is so 
much abused and which offers more opportunities for quackery 
than that of sterility. The ordinary layman probably knows less 
of the female genitalia than of any other part of the body. To 
him the whole series of changes that occur in the female, from 
the time of copulation to that of parturition, is a deep mystery, 
and one which few of our clients feel capable of penetrating or 
understanding. As a result of this and the frequency of ster¬ 
ility from a diversity of causes, there is a strong demand for 
remedies to overcome sterility. The result is that the market is 
flooded with nostrums and patent medicines to cure sterility. 
These vary fro mcolored and sweetened water to canthrides. 
We veterinarians, of course, know well that the majority of them 
are absolutely worthless, yet we seldom stop to realize that we 
ourselves are partly to blame for this condition. This subject is 
given very little consideration in our older text books, and many 
of us had little or no instruction in it during our collegiate course. 
We have a tendency to fall into a rut when treating this malady 
to the exclusion of newer treatments. In this way we uncon¬ 
sciously help the cause of the charlatan and worthless patent med¬ 
icine vender. If we treat sterility intelligently and with a degree 
of success, it will lessen this quackery, add very largely to our 
prestige and add many dollars to our yearly income. 
In considering sterility, I do not intend to make a long re¬ 
view of all its phases. I assume that all present have an intimate 
knowledge of embryology and obstetrics from conception to de¬ 
livery, including its physiology and pathology. Consequently, I 
* Read before the Western Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association, Pittsburgh, 
February 15, 1912. 
