ids, from chronic, wasting
diseases, from roundworms or tapeworms in the bowels, from flat-worms
(flukes, trematodes) in the liver, from worms in the lungs, from dark,
damp, unhealthful buildings, etc. In some such cases the nourishment is so
deficient that the fetus dies in the womb and is expelled in consequence.
Excessive loss of blood, attended as it usually is with shock, becomes a
direct cause of abortion.

Acute inflammations of important organs are notorious causes of abortion,
and in most contagious fevers (lung plague, rinderpest, foot-and-mouth
disease) it is a common result. Affections of the chest which prevent due
aeration of the blood induce contractions of the womb, as shown
experimentally by Brown-Sequard. Pregnant women suffocated in smoke aborted
in many cases. (Retoul.)

Ergoted grasses have long been known as a cause of widespread abortion in
cows. The ergot is familiar as the dark purple or black, hard, spurlike
growths which protrude from the seeds of the grasses at the period of their
ripening. (Pl. V.) It is especially common, in damp localities and cloudy
seasons on meadows shaded by trees and protected against the free sweep of
the winds. The same is to a large extent true of smut; hence, wet years
have been often remarkable for the great prevalence of abortions. Abortions
have greatly increased in New Zealand among cows since the introduction of
rye grass, which is specially subject to ergot. As abortion is more
prevalent in old dairying districts, the ergot may not be the sole cause in
this instance.

The riding of one another by cows is attended by such severe muscular
exertion, jars, jolts, mental excitement, and gravitation of the womb and
abdominal organs backward that it may easily cause abortion in a
predisposed animal.

Keeping in stalls that slope too much behind (more than 2 inches) acts in
the same way, the compression from lying and the gravitation backward
proving more than a predisposed cow can safely bear.

Deep gutters behind the stalls, into which one or both hind limbs slip
unexpectedly, strain the loins and jar the body and womb most injuriously.
Slippery stalls in which the flooring boards are laid longitudinally in
place of transversely, and on which there is no device to give a firm
foothold, are almost equally dangerous. Driving on icy ground, or through a
narrow doorway where the abdomen is liable to be jammed, are other common
causes. Aborting cows often fail to