MIDLAND COUNTIES VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 777 
them, the liquor amnii would escape, and the expulsion of the 
foetus follow. A sudden shock to the nervous system, or fright, 
may excite the uterus to action, producing the death and expulsion 
of the foetus. 
Having thus alluded generally to the causes of abortion, 1 come 
now to the consideration of that special form of it in cows which 
assumes somewhat of an epizootic character. Of late years the 
malady (if I may be allowed to term it so) does not appear to have 
occurred to the same great extent as formerly, and it is possible 
that this decreased frequency of it may in some measure depend 
upon the improvement by means of drainage, &c., that has been 
made in the management of land, especially grass land, whereby 
the herbage produced is of a more nutritious kind. It is, I think, 
certain that the drainage of land has tended greatly towards the 
prevention of other diseases, such as red water in cattle, rot in 
sheep, &c., which formerly caused more serious losses to the farmer 
than they at present do. But to return. Nearly every extensive 
breeder of cattle stock has at some time or other experienced con¬ 
siderable losses from abortion in cows, occurring in this wholesale 
manner; and it has happened in high and low situations, upon all 
descriptions of soils, and at various times of the year, which circum¬ 
stances have rendered the accounting for it a by no means easy 
matter, and that there should be great difference of opinion existing 
respecting it is not to be wondered at. I have, when speaking of the 
general predisposing causes of abortion, before alluded to the great 
susceptibility to a recurrence of it when once it has taken place; 
this, although applying to some extent to all animals, especially 
does so to the cow; she appears to be particularly susceptible to 
the action of any of the exciting causes, and the repeated occurrence 
of abortion in her is much more frequently observed ; indeed, when 
it has taken place in a herd of cows to any considerable extent, the 
same state of things the following year is almost a matter of cer¬ 
tainty, and it very commonly exends over three or four consecutive 
years; this may not altogether depend upon the predisposition to 
abort after such has once taken place, but may be due to the same 
exciting causes being in operation in each year; and this seems 
probable from the fact that heifers which were not in calf the first 
year of abortions occurring on any particular farm, are amongst the 
first subjects the next. The question then arises. What is the 
cause of abortion taking place amongst cows to this extent? I 
cannot for one moment believe that it in all instances, even when 
occurring to the same extent, depends upon the same cause; but I 
cannot doubt that there exists in the cow a peculiar predisposition 
to abortion, and a greater susceptibility to the action of exciting 
causes than is the case in any other animal; therefore, in consider¬ 
ing the probable causes, I think it is necessary to keep this in 
mind. 
First, then, cows which are fed upon coarse indigestible food, 
such as straw, bad hay, rough grass, growing in wet situations, are 
liable to derangement of their digestive systems, their stomachs 
