ABORTION BY COWS. 
109 
ABORTION BY COWS, 
By L. FRANK. 
Director of the Yet. Inst., and Prof, at the Agricultural Department of the Poly. 
TECHNICUM IN MUNICH.) 
Translated from the Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Theirmedicin. Vol. 3, Part 5, p. 368. 
By J. GERTH, Jr., of Newark, N. J, 
Student of Veterinary Medicine at Berlin, Germany. 
-:o:- 
We have diseases which endanger the life of cattle very little, 
and can hardly he compared with the dreaded pestilential diseases 
which attack them, but still they have an important effect on the 
regular management of breeding, and therefore seriously damage 
agriculture by their yearly sporatic appearances. Whilst the pest„ 
ilences endanger or ruin the capital invested in animal life, there 
are others which not only destroy the profits expected from breed¬ 
ing, hut also endanger the capital at the same time. To the latter 
belongs the frequent occurrence of abortion among cows and 
mares. Through abortion—although statistics in this direction 
are entirely wanting—the stock raiser often has to suffer a greater 
loss than by an epizootic disease. This is not only the case here, 
but also in foreign countries, where we are constantly hearing 
similar complaints. It is essential to the progress of medicine al¬ 
ways to endeavor to seek the exact causes of diseases, for we can 
only by this means expect a successful treatment after we are in¬ 
timately acquainted with the enemy with whom one has to fight. 
With abortion it is of particular importance that we should be¬ 
come well acquainted with its causes, since the whole treatment 
rests upon their removal and prophylaxes. 
It is a well known fact that a large number of external cir¬ 
cumstances, such as feeding with improper food and the like, can 
produce abortion. This form of abortion, although often acquir¬ 
ing great extension, especially through the distribution of unwhole¬ 
some food, is what I would like to call “ sporadic abortion,” in op¬ 
posite to the infectious abortion, which is produced by the action 
of infectious matter. The latter form of abortion receives the 
most attention at the present day, and is of very great importance 
