36 
ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYilEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
That specific cause of abortion, which we designate infectious, differs in its natur 
and history from abortion occurring in sporadic cases, more particularly from it 
attacking all, or nearly all the pregnant cows on a farm, stable or pasture, over a widi 
district, or even throughout a whole county for perhaps a succession of years thu 
constituting itself a veritable scourge to agriculture. 
If we attempt to study the causes which have been alleged as operating in thi 
production of epizootic abortion, we are baffled among conflicting statements anc 
opinions. Many writers have mentioned those causes which have been already enum 
erated as pioducmg spoiadic or accidental abortion; while others have taken inti 
consideiation those influences which may give rise to the accident, as well as tliosi 
which may propagate the disorder. 
. w |th regard to general causes, it is remarked that the disease is most frequentlv 
epizootic, in wet yeais, when it is probably due to anaemia, as well as to forage dam 
aged by moisture, ergotized or otherwise altered. This adynamic condition of ani¬ 
mals, biought about by the weather and food is, in the opinion of Zundel, particularly 
favorable tor the multiplication of microphytes, microscocci, and bacteria in the o- en . 
thTs 1 kin^'of^bortioif 16mbrane ’ and these are re g ar ded as the principal local cause of 
f'? 0 a f enc ^. °^. J as k century, says Fleming, contagion or infection 
was believed to play the principal, if not the soie part; for it was observed that when 
a cow aborted in a place where other pregnant cows were kept, these would abort in 
succession until all, or nearly all, had miscarried. Not only this, but it has often 
happened that a newly-purchased cow in calf has been introduced into a farm where 
the cows had alwa/ys calved favorably at the proper time; and when the stranger has 
(boited, first one, then another, then a third, and so on of the others have experienced 
le same misfoitune, and the malady has persisted in the same place for consecutive 
y ears. 
£f ain ; ^Y hen P re snant cows which were living in a place where the disease had 
not existed, have been introduced into a stable where it prevails, those that are at the 
end of gestation calve regularly and normally soon after arrival, while if they are a 
certain time in the infected stable before this period is reached, they abort like the 
otners. 
The insalubrity and bad hygiene of cowsheds and stables appear to have no influ¬ 
ence in the production of the accident, as it appears quite as frequently and readily 
in well-regulated stables and farms as in those of opposite conditions; in fact, nothing 
Can SfS 1 !. ie occurrence of enzootic abortion except the presence of a contagion, i 
hile the question, whether there is actually such an infectious matter existing 
must be answered in the affirmative, yet we soon become aware of our own ignorance 
by attempting to answer both these questions : “ What is the infectious matter pro¬ 
ducing abortion, and where does it originate ? ” 1 
Numerous experiments have been made to discover this infectious matter, and to 
produce abortion by conveying it into the bodies of he lthy cows. I 
+ Franck, of the Munich Veterinary School, has established by microscopical inves¬ 
tigation that on the lining membrane of the vagina and that of the vulva, there is 
constantly found a minute fungus, mixed with mucus, the “Leptothrix vaginalis” 
m every respect similar to the Leptothrix buccalis ” found in the mouth which 
according to Hal her of the University of Jena, is only an allotropic condition of the 
ordinary molds, being, m fact, a kind of bacterium. Towards the period of calving, 
bec r 1 ?i e extraordinarily abundant, and they appear to concur in the 
decomposition of the foetal membranes and their expulsion; when the membranes 
aie retained and putrify in the womb, they are extremely numerous. 
o * ranc f h I l i S sl P wa that spearing the vaginal passage of a pregnant animal to 
i c ertam depth with the matter from the expelled membranes of one which has been 
delivered, abortion can be induced. , 
hirfifnf nn a f te Y bacteria in the vaginal mucus, and in some cases in the after-! 
ot an aborted foetus, attempted to produce abortion experimentally. He brought i 
muc js into the vagina of several cows, and as the result they 
aboitecl in from nine to fifteen days. 
Hi. Salmon, of -North Carolina, has also found the bacteria to exist in great num¬ 
bers among the discharges of cows which had aborted. , 
So that, says Zundel, it is sufficient to introduce into the vagina micrococcis 
or bacteria, which multiply there, and penetrate to the womb, commence their work 
of decomposition, of which abortion is the consequence.” 
rafah t La aS been re m a rked that, in general, the foetal membranes are liable to be 
retained in cows which abort, and that when not removed artificially they only come 
tom rnJpJJ d “°™P° siti0 “ s . ets in- The influence of these putrifyingmembranes has 
infectP^tto p b Ie“ any f veterinarians, who imagined that the putrescent emanations 
y t f t ?p° - the + a , nlma breat i;! ng them i but Zundel thinks it more prob- 
this £ lfStui C10 “ t akes p l a $? by the-genital-mucus membrane. In support of 
this he quotes the observations ot Boloff, who asserts that he always saw the disease 
