SEQUELS OF PARTURITION. 257 



Whatever general treatment may be adopted in such instances, local 

 treatment must not be overlooked ; and in addition to removing as much 

 of the contents of the mammary glands as possible, these may be kept 

 healthy, or cured when congested or inflamed, by suitable treatment. 

 Soothing liniments or embrocations should be timeously applied by fric- 

 tion to the skin covering them. 



SECTION II. ORGANIC MODIFICATIONS. 



Gestation and parturition being completed, it is necessary that the 

 genital oigans should return to their non-puerperal state. Indeed, this 

 return to tneir ordinary physiological condition is commenced in the 

 uterus even during labor, and remarkable modifications occur more par- 

 ticularly in the uterus and its membranes then, and for some time after- 

 wards. Theses changes are connected with the diminution of the uterus 

 in volume, alterations in its mucous membrane, and the reforming of its 

 cervix. 



The powerful contractions of the uterus during parturition, undoubtedly 

 tend to use up the contents of the cells of the non-striped muscular fibre 

 composing its middle coat ; the simultaneous compression of the capil- 

 laries and afferent vessels preventing the expended protoplasm from being 

 replaced. After the expulsion of the foetus and its membranes, this 

 wasting or oxidation of these fibres continues : the uterus still contracting 

 at intervals, and producing those sensations known as the " after-pains," 

 — the contractions being slow, gradual, and continuous, and lasting until 

 the whole of its inner surface is more or less in contact, and its cavity has 

 regained its ordinary dimensions. In this process the muscular fibres 

 continue to undergo alteration, the contractions of the organ diminishing 

 in force as this change goes on ; and this change is essentially related to 

 the conversion into fat of the albuminous substance of the protoplasm of 

 which their cells are composed. The fibres become degenerated and 

 absorbed, and it is some time before they are replaced by others which 

 have much smaller cells. The bloodvessels of the organ also undergo 

 similar alterations, after the uterine contractions have more or less sus- 

 pended the flow of blood in their interior. They become wrinkled and 

 sinuous, and gradually less permeable to the circulating fluid, and the 

 walls of the veins and capillaries are attacked by fatty degeneration, and 

 are absorbed in large numbers. 



This gradual interstitial absorption occurring after parturition, brings 

 about a considerable reduction in the weight and volume of the organ. 

 Thus the uterus of the Cow, which, immediately after delivery, will weigh 

 from thirteen to fifteen pounds, will be no more than seventeen to twenty- 

 one ounces when this process is completed ; and the uterus of a Ewe 

 will be found reduced to a twelfth or thirteenth of its weight at parturition. 



At the same time, the mucous membrane lining the organ is undergoing 

 corresponding, but perhaps less profound, modifications to those observed 

 in woman after the uterus has got rid of its contents. When treating of 

 the physiology of gestation, we described the manner in which this mem- 

 brane* became enormously thickened, either wholly or partially, to con- 

 stitute a most important glandular and vascular structure" for the develop- 

 ment of the young creature. But after parturition, fatty degeneration 

 attacks this structure and completely destroys it, and this destruction 



