808 
OBSERVATIONS ON CASES OF LEUCORRHCE A. 
thus become the seat of slight chronic congestion or inflam¬ 
mation, which, of course, causes an extra and pathological 
secretion from the glands, follicles, and crypts of these pas¬ 
sages ; thus the characteristic of white curdy (chiefly mucous) 
discharge of leucorrhoea is produced, generally to be passed 
off during every micturition. 
The same pathological conditions may occur in the uterus 
itself, from which, of course, the discharge will only take 
place at comparatively long intervals and in larger quantities, 
and where the cause is analogous the discharge will be, as 
usual, white in colour, curdy in consistence, and mostly 
mucous in nature. 
In a great many cases, however, the discharge in uterine 
leucorrhoea will prove to be muco-purulent, and even entirely 
purulent, and in such instances the cause may be the irrita¬ 
tion produced in the uterus by the retention of part of the 
placental debris , or, perhaps, the retention of part of the 
oestral discharge. Under either of these circumstances the 
amount of foetor of the leucorrhoeal discharges will be some¬ 
what astonishing. 
Where the discharge in any way partakes of a purulent 
character considerable thickening and even ulceration of the 
lining membrane and walls of the uterus will be found ; a 
state of matters which is evidently induced by the continued 
acrid irritation of the retained decidua or oestral products. 
Another fertile source of leucorrhoea, in my opinion, is the 
retention of the products of checked or destroyed fecunda¬ 
tion. The vital principle of the early embryo by some means 
or another is destroyed, and the effete (dead) material thus 
produced creates, by irritation as a foreign body, an extra 
and pathological secretion from the glandular system of the 
uterus, which, uniting with the dead embryotic matter, goes 
to make up the usual leucorrhoeal flow. Further, the reten¬ 
tion for any considerable length of time in the uterus of this 
flow brings on, in the mucous membrane of the uterus, a 
chronic inflammatory action, which may end in indolent 
ulceration. Two of the worst cases of leucorrhoea which I 
have ever met were evidently of this origin; the patients 
were a mare and a quey, and they had both ultimately to be 
destroyed. The discharge from the mare was what I may 
call sanio-purulent, and was excessive in quantity and most 
offensive in smell. On post-mortem examination consider¬ 
able ulceration was seen on the lining membrane of the 
uterus. The discharge from the quey was composed of yel¬ 
lowish putrid pus, very fetid, and creamy in consistenee. I 
may just say that there was no sign of tubercle in this 
