ABORTION BY COWS. 
113 
*Thannenhauer has also drawn attention towards it, that when¬ 
ever a cow cast before time, the neighboring cows were the first 
to follow, and supposed it be caused by infection. A number of 
cases where abortion was suddenly checked, by removal of the 
animals into different stables, speaking decidedly for themselves, 
that there must have been something contagious existing in the 
stable, which could produce abortion; consequently one feels jus¬ 
tified in assuming the presence of some infectious matter. Finally 
the question come before us: 1. What is this suspected infectious 
matter, and from whence does it generate? and, 2. In what manner 
does it penetrate into the pregnant animal, and thus produce abor¬ 
tion ? 
While the question, whether there is actually such an infec¬ 
tious 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 producing 
abortions, and where does it originate from ? 
I will here state a very important experiment of Braners f and 
thus try to answer the above questions. 
Braner, after finding bacteria in the vaginal mucus, and in 
some cases in the after-birth—of an aborted foetus, attempted to 
produce abortion experimentally. He brought small quantities 
of vaginal mucus into the vagina of a cow which had calved a 
day previously. About nine days later abortion followed. Several 
other observations gave a similar result, with the exception, that 
abortion did not take place until eleven or fifteen days. 
Out of these experiments two phenomena present themselves. 
1. That some infectious matter actually is contained f in the 
vaginal discharge of cows, which have aborted, and 
2. That, the direct introduction of this matter into the vagina 
of a healthy cow, can produce abortion. 
This fact is a matter of great importance. But it has by all 
means not yet been decided, what the infectious matter itself is, 
whether an organic ferment,as Hiller assumes, or whether a vege- 
* Sachs. Jahresbericht iiber das Veteriniixwesen 1870. S 139. 
tVgl. Sachs. Jahresbericht 1873. S. 86. 
JBrauer found bacteria in it. But I leave it undecided, whether the bac¬ 
teria represent the infectious matter, or if the bacteria only accompany it. 
