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EXTRACTS FROM GERMAN PERIODICALS. 
Abortion in Sheep. —Karl, of Mauheim, communicates 
an instance of contagious abortion in ovidn. A herd com¬ 
posed half of the merino and half of a common cross-breed, 
were pastured together upon a well ordered farm. 
In the winter season the merinoes were all premature in 
parturition, while the commoner sort bore as healthy sheep 
should. Too much in-and-in-breeding is assigned as the cause. 
Proceeding in Retention of the Placenta. —Brueller 
used solution of creolin, or of liquor alumen acet., and several 
days later applied manual force. Corrosive sublim.ite is 
never to be recommended, and creolin only in very weak 
solution. When the placenta has been four or five days with¬ 
held, Brachinger irrigates three times daily, using ten quarts 
of a potas. permanganate solution, temperature 104 ° at each 
injection. As a rule the membranes are rejected in four days 
or less. Liebl uses creolin water continuously for two days, 
after which time, the envelopes not appearing, manual aid is 
extended to the animal. 
Congenital Cloaca in Suim:. —Rotter found the anus 
to be wanting in a slaughtered, half year old swine. The 
animal was in a goodly condition, and intra-vitam had excreted 
urine and feces through the lips of the vulva. The rectal 
and vaginal cavities were made communicative by means of 
a forearm one and a half inches in diameter, not supplied with 
valvular appendages. In other respects the anatomical con¬ 
formation was normal.— Koch's CEsterr. Wtsschr . 
PURGATIVE AGENTS. 
Medicines of this nature, which may be introduced into 
the body through the skin, and which have no secondary in¬ 
fluence upon the organism, are indeed scarce; aloin, acid, 
cathartinicum, senna, colocynth pur. (Merck), and citrullinum 
(Merck), are the more prominent of this class. 
Nevertheless the introduction of these medicines is asso¬ 
ciated with pain to such a degree that even with the addition 
of cocaine the agony does not disappear. Objection has been 
made to their use on this score alone. That this disagreeable 
objection may be obviated, Kohlstock dissolves the agents in 
