ABORTION IN ANIMALS. In general, two forms of abortion are recognized by veterinarians, the non-contagious and the contagious. There are a number of conditions which may produce non - contagious abortion. A general eachexia or amemia may be among the predisposing causes of abortion; and among other conditions and causes which may lead to abortion mention should be made of acute diseases of the vital organs, contagious fevers, chronic diseases of the abdominal organs, diseases of the ovaries, kidneys, or bladder, diarrhea, fatty degeneration of the heart; ingestion of large quantities of cold water, various forms of indigestion, espe cially those which are accompanied by the forma tion of gas in the stomach ; imprudent feeding with succulent forage in large quantities, such as roots, potatoes, apples, pumpkins, ergotized grasses, sweaty or rusty grains and grasses; standing in stalls with too great a backward slope, nervous excitement, and muscular strain. Contagious abortion is most frequent in cows. It occurs also in sheep. goats, hor*es, swine. and, perhaps, in the (log and cat. It appears in an enzoiitie or epizootic form. The disease is per petuated in the herd or transmitted from one herd to another by means of contagion. If an aborting cow is placed in a herd which has hitherto been healthy, an outbreak of abortion may occur. Bulls that have served aborting cows may transmit the disease to other cows. In general, the micro-organisms to which the disease is due are found in the male and female genital organs, and on the afterbirth from abort ing animals.
in cows. abortion seldom occurs before the fourth month of pregnancy, but may occur at any time after that period. The symptoms of the disease are not prominent or characteristic. Cows which are affected with the disease may re main apparently healthy until abortion takes place. The Inglis is expelled with ease, and is usually dead at. birth. If abortion occurs at the end of six months the young may be alive, but lives only a few hours. Mares abort between the fourth and the seventh month of gestation.
The premonitory symptoms of abortion in mares are enlargement of the mammary glands and a white mucous or sometimes purulent discharge from the vagina three or four days before the expulsion of the ftetus. The treatment for this disease, which has given satisfactory results, is the application of thorough antisepsis. In ease of an outbreak of abortion, the fietus and hetal membranes front aborting animals should be burned or deeply buried, the posterior parts of the animals should be washed in some antiseptic solution, repeated antiseptic vaginal douches should be given, and the stable should he thor oughly disinfected. In order to prevent the pos sible spread of the iii feet ion, the posterior parts of other vows or mares in the same Sta hie should be carefully washed with a solution of creolin, potassium permanganate. or corrosive sublimate. Contagious or cpizoeti• abortion ha. been known in all parts of Europe since the eighteenth cen tury. The disease also prevails in Australia and in all parts of the United States. Many extensive outbreak. are recorded in lo calities. Consult: Turner's Abor tion in American Vett-rim/Han Perieur (1894) ; iecpor( United States Department of Agriculture. 1803. Division of Animal Industry. Bulletin 3, 1). E. Salmon; Special Report nn i/ Ilanrous Investigations Concerning Infectious and Parasitic Diseases of Domesticated _1.0i-0w/a ( ington, 1893).
Anoimox IN PLANrs. That kind of arrest in development by which an organ appears in its early stages. but fails to develop to its normal form or tuize. For example. in many !lowers cer tain stamens are aborted, their primordia having appeared, but having failed to develop into func tioning stamens. The abortion may he of any degree between the first appearance of the organ and its complete maturity. A very closely re lated term is "suppression." in which not even the beginning, of an expected organ appears. The phenomenon is chiefly observable in connection with the flower (q.v.).