Parturition Fever, ete. 307 



outside such a cavity. Stockfleth attributed the malady to a 

 metro-peritonitis, and the absorption of the morbid products and 

 poisoning, but neither a metritis nor peritonitis is a common ac- 

 companiment of the affection. 



Franck who accounts for the asthenia by an anaemic condition 

 of the brain, explains the anaemia by a pre-existing congestion 

 and oedema of the rete mirabile at the base of the brain. He 

 claims that sows which have also a rete mirabile in this situation 

 .sometimes suffer from parturient fever. He fails to adduce 

 cases in the sheep and goat which also have retia mirabilia. The 

 pregnant sheep ma}^ die of an asthenic affection, but usually before 

 parturition. Franck's theory is plausibly based on the anatomical 

 and physiological conditions, for the elaborate network of vessels at 

 the base of the brain, undergoes great distention under increa.sed 

 arterial tension, and with the serous effusion, compresses the 

 brain and drives out its blood. 



Palsy of the ganglionic system has been invoked, with suc- 

 ceeding congestion of the myelon and encephalon (Barlow, 

 Kohne, Carsten Harms, etc.). Explanation is made that the 

 supposed excess of nervous force fails of distribution through a 

 lack of conductilit}^ of the nerves, and the nerve centres suffer. 

 Binz has even found the spinal roots of the sympathetic .sur- 

 rounded by a thick gelatinoid exudate. The theory is, however, 

 essentially speculative and fails to explain the origin of the dis- 

 ease or its connection with the recognized conditions of its occur- 

 rence. 



Plethora zvitJi Arterial tension and all conditions contributing 

 to this, as already set forth under causes must be allowed a 

 prominent place in considering the nature of the disease. The 

 blood globules in my experience are somewhat smaller than nor- 

 mal, implying the density of the plasma, and implying a direct 

 influence on trophic and metabolic processes. Under these in- 

 fluences the congestion of the encephalic circulation, and notably 

 of the rete mirabile, and a serous effusion, tend first to pro.strate 

 the nerve force, and second to render the other intracranial 

 structures anaemic. 



The direct action of a narcotic poison, leucocytic or microbian, 

 though as yet a hypothesis merely, has much in its favor, on 

 considerations drawn from the ob.served immunity in particular 



