658 PA THOL OGY OF PAR TURITION. 



bent that force cannot extend it, and the temperature is distinctly in- 

 creased on the concave side — that on which the muscles are contracted. 



From time to time it may attempt to rise, but it cannot, as a rule, do 

 so ; the knees may be flexed, but the hind parts of the body seem to be 

 nailed to the ground. If assistance is afforded, it cannot avail itself of it ; 

 or if it chances to be raised, it falls again as soon as let alone. It appears 

 to be insensible to blows or pain of any kind, and if the head is lifted 

 and let go, it drops an inert mass, or is again pressed round against the 

 shoulder. The teeth are ground at intervals, and the stupor or coma 

 becomes more marked. The animal pays no heed to surrounding objects ; 

 the eyes are half-closed, and they either move convulsively in their orbits, 

 or are dull and lustreless ; the hair is erect and dry, and flies settle on 

 the surface of the body. 



The pulse does not vary much in the earlier stage ; it may number 

 fifty, sixty, or seventy beats per minute, or it may be fewer than in health, 

 but it is very full and soft. When coma is well advanced, however, and 

 paralysis appears to be complete, it becomes small and quick. 



•««§& 



Fig. 206. 

 Puerperal Apoplexy : Cow. 



The respirations may be increased to eighty or ninety per minute, and 

 this occurs more particularly when there is pneumonia, due to the passage 

 of foreign matter into the bronchia — an accident which is frequently noted 

 in this disease. When the coma and paralysis are very marked, the re- 

 spirations are often slow and deep, sighing or stertorous, at other times 

 calm and regular. We may have all these variations in the same animal 

 — the hurried, stertorous breathing succeeding the quiet and deep respi- 

 rations in a very abrupt manner. As the pulse increases in frequency the 

 breathing sometimes becomes slower. 



The temperature of the body is not increased, as a rule ; on the con- 

 trary, it is very often below the normal standard — Harms and Adams 

 have found it as low as 35° Cent. (95° Fahr.). The extremities are gen- 

 erally icy cold, and the surface heat of the trunk is irregularly distributed. 

 Sometimes, during the first stage, the temperature is for a very brief period 

 slightly elevated. 



The mucous membrane of the mouth is pale, and saliva accumulates 

 about or flows continually from it (hence the disease is sometimes des- 



