PUERPERAL FITS. 461 



that those who repeat this experiment should try the effects of the 

 medicine unaided by the auxiliary.' 



"The Professor adds, that the great power which this drug is 

 said to have on the human being, and the apparent effect in the 

 case just given, suggest the propriety of instituting a further trial 

 of it, and of our extending our observations to cattle, amongst 

 which difficult cases of calving so frequently occur. 



" Mr Simpson thus concludes some remarks on ergot in difficult 

 parturition. ' This medicine possesses a very great power over the 

 uterus, rousing its dormant or debilitated contractility, and stimu- 

 lating it to an extra performance of this necessary function after 

 its natural energy has been in some measure destroyed by forcible 

 but useless action. The direct utility of the ergot was manifested 

 in cases where the uterus appeared quite exhausted by its repeated 

 efforts ; and certainly it is but fair to ascribe the decidedly aug- 

 mented power of the organ to the stimulus of the ergot, for no other 

 means were resorted to in order to procure the desired effect. Its 

 action, too, is prompt. Within ten minutes of the administration 

 of a second or third dose, when nature has been nearly exhausted, 

 the parturition has been safely effected.' 



" Puerperal Fits. — Nature proportions the power and resources 

 of the mother to the wants of her offspring. In her wild undo- 

 mesticated state she is able to suckle her progeny to the full time ; 

 but, in the artificial state in which we have placed her, we shorten 

 the interval between each period of parturition, we increase the 

 number of her young ones at each birth, we diminish her natural 

 powers of affording them nutriment, and we give her a degree of 



