682 PA THOL OG Y OF PA R TURITION. 



of pain in the limbs. Exceptionally, there is only one attack ; generally 

 there are several, which may succeed each other quickly, when the pa- 

 tient may remain comatose between the pauses, and at the height of an 

 attack death may take place from cedema of the lungs or apoplexy. In 

 favorable cases the intervals become longer, the attacks tliemselves more 

 imperfect and shorter, until they finally cease. Parturient collapse in 

 the Cow has not the intermittent character of the eclampsia of woman, 

 and there are seldom, if ever, real convulsions ; there is, on the contrary, 

 loss of the cerebral faculties, and paralysis of the m.uscles, particularly 

 of the hind-limbs : indeed, the most marked features of the disease are 

 progressive paralysis, continuous course, absence of convulsions, and 

 rapid death in fatal cases. 



But if we cannot at present admit that this bovine disorder and eclamp- 

 sia of woman are the same, there is a malady which attacks not only the 

 Cow, but also the Goat, Bitch, and Sow, and which certainly closely re- 

 sembles the human disease. It has been studied chiefly by Hertwig, 

 Zundel (who had only observed it in the Bitch), Mauri (who has studied 

 it in the Cow, Goat, and Bitch), Harms (who describes it in the Goat), 

 and Ellenberger, Seller, and Wostendorf (who have seen it in the Sow). 

 It is possible that the disease is rare ; but it is more probable that it has 

 been confounded with other maladies. We have only seen one case of 

 it, the victim being a Bitch suckling too many puppies. 



Symptoms. 



With the Cow and Goat, the attack appears to come on soon after pj-r- 

 turition, but in the Bitch it may occur in from two to thirty days after 

 that event, and always during lactation. In the Sow, it usually begins 

 between three to five days after parturition. With the Bitch and Sow it 

 is not so serious as in the Cow, and with the latter the disease is far less 

 fatal than in woman. It would appear that it is hereditary. In the Cow 

 and Goat the malady closely resembles that in woman, the attacks being 

 multiple, and sometimes accompanied by loss of consciousness ; though, 

 as with the Bitch, the two periods of tonic and clonic convulsions are not 

 well marked. 



The eclamptic attacks are not sudden in their invasion. They gen- 

 erally begin with tremblings, anxiety, agitation, and very perceptible 

 feebleness in movement. These symptoms progressively increase in in- 

 tensity, until the animal can no longer stand. This, the first period, is 

 not constant in its duration. When lying, the animal is seized with gen- 

 eral convulsions of the voluntary muscles ; the limbs are extended and 

 agitated as if by electric discharges ; the eyes pirouette in their orbit, or 

 more or less squint ; the mouth is half open, the tongue pendent, and 

 spumous foam flows from the commissures of the lips. The Bitch ap- 

 pears to retain its consciousness, but the Cow loses its senses more or 

 less completely. After a variable period of time — from a quarter of an 

 hour to several hours — the convulsions cease, the patient rises, and after 

 standing for a few seconds as if in a state of deep coma, it gradually re- 

 gains its senses and ordinary condition. 



The attacks may be more or less numerous and intense, and conse- 

 quently constitutes a disease of which the gravity is variable, according 

 to Mauri. 



Hertwig, who was the first to describe the disease in the Bitch, and 

 Zundel, give a similar account of the symptoms in that animal. The 



