ABORTION BY COWS. 
115 
Bauer’s case has shown that abortion can be produced through 
the vagina. 
This seems the most probable; as the vagina offers the mos^ 
favorable conditions for the reception and formation of bacteria. 
But still it is difficult to comprehend, how the infectious matter 
gains access to the young, as 
1. Ordinary infectious matter cannot enter through the unin¬ 
jured vagina, and it is a fact, that we never find the mother animal 
complicated by infectious abortion. 
2. We know, that the amnion of the young constitutes afilter, 
which can retain the most minute body at least for a length 
of time. We also know, that by pregnant, and animals attacked 
by anthrax, we never find anthrax-bacteria in the blood of the 
foetus, whilst large quantities of them are met with in the blood 
of the mother. Yet it seems, as if by longer action than is the 
case by anthrax, the infectious matter can manage to penetrate 
from the vagina to the uterus, and through the amnion into the 
amniotic fluid, and even into the blood of the young. The fol¬ 
lowing supports this opinion, viz: that the lambs of sheep affected 
with variola cannot become infected through the ovine for a long 
time after their birth, and consequently must have been “ vacci¬ 
nated ” in the womb. The following case of Dr. Hausman’s is of 
special interest: 
He states that in an aborted four month old foetus, he found a 
large number of movable and immovable bacteria in the amniotic 
fluid, as well as in the serous effusion in the thorax. The amnion 
was closed completely. It is therefore most probable that they 
were already contained in the uterus and penetrated into the foetus 
through the amnion. Since the mother remained healthy, one 
cannot conceive that the bacteria penetrated from the blood of 
the mother into the foetus. It is more likely that they reached 
the foetus through the vagina. 
On this account it would be of great interest to examine the 
blood and amniotic fluid of the aborted young—as fresh as possi¬ 
ble—for bacteria, and experiment with them, to prove their in¬ 
fectiousness. 
These facts tend to show that infectious abortion is due to the 
