648 PA THOL OG Y OF PAR TURITION. 



relapse, and embolic pyaemia of the lungs or neighboring organs. When 

 septic infection does not occur, bruising of the soft parts during difficult 

 parturition may give rise to thrombosis of the veins, with secondary 

 pysemia. This may explain the occurrence of abscesses appearing at 

 the joints, and inflammation of the feet supervening on parturition. 

 Thrombosis of the lymphatics has rarely been observed in animals ; it is 

 noticed within the inflamed spot. "The coagulated lymph either uni- 

 formly fills the vessel, or gives the appearance of a string of beads. 

 Sometimes, also, single larger dilatations of lymphatic vessels are seen. 

 The thrombosis may be due to the direct influence of the infecting mat- 

 ter, but more frequently it is caused by the inflammation of the connec- 

 tive tissue around the vessel. The products also of the inflammation of 

 this tissue have a tendency to coagulate, and the contents of the vessels 

 participate in the process." Sometimes the lymphatics are filled with 

 pus (Purulent lympka?igitis), and the neighboring glands are swollen and 

 softened. This thrombosis of the lymphatics has been considered a 

 favorable circumstance, since the occluded vessels are prevented from 

 conveying the infecting materials : the inflammatory process being at 

 least delayed at the nearest group of lymphatic glands. The lymphan- 

 gitis is therefore considered an accidental change, which usually remains 

 limited to the diseased part, and may disappear ; and it has been re- 

 marked that it rarely extends further towards the thoracic .duct, unless 

 there are other very considerable changes. 



Sometimes the thrombi in the vessels in the uterus soften ; so that, in 

 cutting into the walls of the organ, these appear like small abscesses, 

 varying in size from a pea to that of a nut. They can only be distin- 

 guished from abscesses by their smooth walls, since the aff'erent and 

 efferent vessels cannot always be found. 



In intense parametritis, with extensive infiltration of the subserous 

 connective tissue, we may have other organs involved, and especially 

 those which are directly connected by means of this tissue — such as the 

 ovaries. The peritonitis may extend through the diaphragm to the pleurae, 

 or the inflammation in both membranes may be due to ichorrhaemia. 



In those cases in which thrombi in the blood-vessels have become de- 

 tached and broken-up, the masses may be carried in the circulation, and 

 then give rise to embolism and haemorrhagic infarcts, or to metastatic 

 abscesses, in such parenchymatous organs as the lungs, liver, spleen, kid- 

 neys, etc. 



In the most rapidly fatal cases, in which death is due to septic para- 

 metritis, there is no time for fibrinous exudation, and we have appear- 

 ances not unlike those observed in splenic fever. The blood is dark- 

 colored and non-coagulable, ecchymoses are found in various organs and 

 tissues, and there is a marked tendency to rapid putrefaction. The ele- 

 mentary structures of organs show the commencement of an acute inflam- 

 matory process — the fine granular infiltration or " cloudy swelling," fatty 

 degeneration, or even disintegration of cells. 



We have already stated that there is nothing specific in parturient 

 fever, and so far as its pathological anatomy is concerned, the same al- 

 terations are observed in non-parturient subjects. Parturition only 

 predisposes the animal to its occurrence, from the fact that there are 

 wounds and bruises inflicted on the soft tissues of the genital canal ; that 

 there is present a quantity of matters — fluid and solid — either decomposed 

 or decomposing ; and that the blood-vessels and lymphatics of the uterus 



