664 PA THOLOG Y OF PARTURITION. 



of atmosphere has occurred or is about to take place, though the con- 

 verse is not true — for when an atmospheric change takes place we cannot 

 predict an invasion of this fever. But if it happens that several cases of 

 the malady follow each other immediately during a certain atmospheric 

 constitution, we may assuredly predict a change in the weather. This 

 change most frequently consists in a transition from settled to rainy 

 weather, bringing about a duninution in the barometric pressure." 



Some veterinarians have ascribed the disease mainly to infection — 

 assimilating the puerperal fever of woman to the ^^TiXixxn^Vii processus in 

 the Cow, but of this there is little evidence indeed ; while others, as 

 already mentioned, imagine that it is merely a nervous form of parturient 

 fever, and due to blood-poisoning. 



Gtinther, very many years ago, and a few others more recently, fancied 

 it was produced by a moral influence, and that this was the removal of the 

 Calf soon after birth, which distressed the Cow. But it was forgotten 

 that the malady sometimes occurs when the Calf is with the Cow, and 

 sucking ; and that other creatures in which the moral faculties are more 

 highly developed, and which exhibit great anxiety and distress on being 

 deprived of their progeny, yet do not suffer from parturient apoplexy. 

 Besides, the latter is no more prevalent in those countries or districts 

 where the calves are taken away from the Cows at an early period, than 

 where they are allowed to remain with them. 



Others also have attributed the occurrence of the disorder to mental 

 excitement during the act of parturition ; but surely this excitement must 

 be greater with the first calf or with the second — when the disease seldom 

 or never appears — than with the third, fourth, or fifth calf, when it is so 

 frequent. Not only this, but it is a notorious fact that parturient apoplexy, 

 in almost every case, follows an easy and rapid expulsion of the foetus 

 without assistance, and ejection of the foetal membranes at the ordinary 

 time. Indeed, parturition is generally wonderfully easy and the opposite 

 of abnormal. So much is this the case, that Kohne boldly asserts that a 

 difficult or protracted delivery is never followed by this disease ; and 

 another authority (Banderschieren) is no less positive in declaring that 

 if a Caw has a difficult calving, or if the placenta is retained, there is 

 little reason to apprehend an attack of the disease. 



The more rapidly the uterus contracts and resumes its normal size, so 

 the more danger there is of parturient apoplexy ; while the longer it 

 remains relaxed or the memoranes are retained in it, so the chances are 

 diminished. In the examination of the bodies of Cows which have per- 

 ished, the uterus is generally found very firmly contracted. Before the 

 expulsion of the foetal membranes, the disease is exceptionally rare. In 

 a very few cases, the attack has commenced during parturition, and in still 

 fewer before birth, and then when the lacteal secretion has not appeared. 



Constipation and gastric repletion have been held by one or two writers 

 to be causes, and others attribute it to over-feeding immediately before 

 parturition. 



These are the chief causes which have been given as operating in the 

 production of this grave affection ; and it will be seen that they are suffi- 

 ciently numerous and diversified to prove that the nature of the disease 

 is obscure — so far at least as its etiology is concerned. We shall only, 

 therefore^ recapitulate what we have said with regard to the salient points 

 of this question, by stating that parturient apoplexy, as a rule, attacks 

 Cows within one to five days after parturition, and especially when that 



