PARTURIENT APOPLEXY.— PARTURIENT COLLAPSE. 665 



act has been easy, prompt, and natural ; and that the animals which are 

 affected are those of the higher breeds, good milkers, in a state of ple- 

 thora, and pluriparas. This brings us to a consideration of the patho- 

 logical anatomy and nature of the malady. 



Pathological Anatomy. 



Notwithstanding the numerous, characteristic, and striking symptoms 

 ;which mark this disease, \\\q post-mortem appearances, no matter whether 

 the animal has been killed or allowed to die, are for the most part of a 

 negative character. In the majority of the descriptions there is much 

 confusion, the lesions of parturient fever being mistaken for those of 

 parturient apoplexy, and vice versd, just as the two diseases are con- 

 founded with each other. In this malady the generative organs are usu- 

 ally little changed ; the uterus may be congested — which it always is 

 immediately after parturition, or it may even be paler than usual ; it is 

 generally firmly contracted. 



The digestive organs are also usually normal, or their blood-vessels are 

 much distended — perhaps due to paralysis of the vaso-motor system of 

 nerves. The rumen is distended with gas in many cases, and the third 

 compartment of the stomach often filled with hard dry food between its 

 leaves, while the intestines contain somewhat hardened faeces. The gall- 

 bladder is sometimes much distended. The lungs are normal, perhaps 

 slightly emphysematous ; at other times congested, or in different stages 

 of pneumonia if foreign matters have obtained access to the air-passages. 

 The examination of the brain has not yielded very satisfactory or con- 

 stant results. Some authorities have not discovered any pathological 

 lesions worthy of note, either in the brain, spinal cord, or their envelopes ; 

 while others have found well-marked and important lesions. These va- 

 ried from venous congestion to oedema, anaemia, and exudation. Bragard, 

 cited by Rainard and Saint-Cyr, constantly found injection of the brain 

 and its meninges. Saake and Festal have also witnessed congestion of 

 the vessels of the encephalon, sub-arachnoideal effusion, extravasation, 

 and blood-clots on the surface of the cerebrum and cerebellum. Lecou- 

 turier has seen serous effusion in the lateral ventricles — traces of spinal 

 meningitis ; while Binz has observed a sanguineous extravasation and 

 gelatinous matter at the origin of the sympathetic nerve, and Fabry 

 blood-clots at the base of the brain, with ser.iim in the cavity of the arach- 

 noid. 



In one instance Schaack irlet with a clot, three-fourths of a line in 

 thickness, covering the left side of the medulla oblongata, and serous 

 effusion into the lateral ventricles ; and in anotiier instance an inflam- 

 matory exudate on the right side of the cerebellum. Harms has found, in 

 many cases, air in the cerebral blood-vessels ; and Noquet and others 

 have reported alterations in the spinal cord, with was reddened, con- 

 gested, more rarely covered with exudate — chiefly in its lumbar portion, 

 and sometimes the sciatic plexus of nerves has been affected. 



Abadie {Recueil de Med. Vt'terinaire, 1873, P- 953) made a careful examination of a 

 Cow which was attacked twenty-four hours after an easy delivery, and died in eighteen • 

 hours. The rumen was filled with dry food ; the second compartment of the stomach 

 was normal, but the third was distended with hard cakes ; the fourth was normal. The 

 mucous membrane was leaden-colored, and in the pylorus and caecum he found a large 

 patch of ecchymosis. In the uterus the cotyledons were shrivelled, whitish, and the 

 lining membrane pale. The organ itself was well contracted, and there was no trace of 



