The male organs of reproduction are not so frequently the seat of disease as those of digestion or of respiration, but it should be remembered that the comparative immunity enjoyed by our horses, employed both for work and for pleasure, is largely due to the fact that geldings are chiefly in use for the purposes named.

The stud animal is liable both to disease and injury to an extent only realized by those in intimate association with this class of horse.

The artificial methods of feeding adopted by the generality of owners of stallions renders their charges the more prone to inflammatory diseases, and to this may be added the excitement and abuse incidental to the service season, when each popular sire may be called upon to copulate several times daily for a period of weeks.

At rare intervals in this country, but not infrequently upon the continent of Europe, a malady prevails among breeding animals of a distinctly contagious nature. It is known as maladie du coit, and is transmitted from mare to horse and from horse to mare in the act of coition. It sometimes becomes endemic, and may be the means of provoking abortion.

A specific bacillus of abortion has been made out by Bang with regard to bovines, and it is more than probable that some such deleterious organism will be discovered to affect the mare.

While emasculation necessarily reduces the liability to disease in the organs of reproduction, there are troubles connected with the appendages of the penis which are directly attributable to the diminished function of that organ.