338 
E. NOCARD. 
drawn from an ndder without care in an infected stable, is never 
soiled by the dnst containing the germ of the disease ; but, 
besides , the facts previously established during the minute study 
of the other pathogenous pasteurellas have established that in¬ 
fection occurs very difficultly through the digestive tracts, and, 
again , we have good reasons to believe that the original infec¬ 
tion from which white scour proceeds takes place in an entirely 
different way. 
Indeed, the constant presence of the lesions of the umbilicus 
and of the umbilical blood-vessels shows that, most often , if not 
always, infection is of umbilical origin. 
But at what moment does it take place ? 
Three suppositions are admissible : either the infection is 
of uterine origin, or again the cord becomes infected at the time 
of delivery, during the passage through the vagina, whose 
mucous membrane is always soiled with various microbes ; or, 
finally, the infection is realized after the delivery, when the 
calf drops on the bedding and when the ruptured cord soaks in 
the faecal matter or dirt of the stable. 
This intra-uterine infection does not seem to be admissible, 
although some farmers say that the delivery of calves that^will 
have white scour is most often abnormal. One must guard 
against those remarks made too late. If the fact was true, it is 
certain that a greater number of abortions would be registered, 
as the foetus would offer a lesser resistance to the pasteurella 
infection than the new-born animal, which dies sometimes in¬ 
side of 24 hours. 
Our inquiry has demonstrated that everywhere abortion has 
not taken place or has affected only a very small number of 
cows. 
I much better believe that infection takes place after de¬ 
livery. 
We have witnessed in a well-kept farm a case of labor in a 
cow. She was in an ordinary barn ; nothing had been prepared 
to receive the new-born. The calf had dropped on a bedding 
soiled with faeces ; he only fell back a little, and there during 
