PUERPERAL FITS. 229 



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 parturi- 

 tion. This medicine possesses a very great power over the uterus, rousing 

 its dormant or debilitated contractility, and stimulating it to an extra per- 

 formance 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 ex- 

 hausted by its repeated efforts ; and certainly it is but fair to ascribe the 

 decidedly augmented 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 parturi- 

 tion has been safely effected. 



Puerperal Fits. Nature proportions the power and resources of the 

 mother to the wants of her offspring. In her wild undomesticated 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 irritability which renders her whole system liable 

 to be excited and deranged by causes that would otherwise be harmless : 

 therefore it happens that, when the petted bitch is permitted to suckle the 

 whole of her litter, her supply of nutriment soon becomes exhausted, and 

 the continued drain upon her produces a great degree of irritability. She 

 gets rapidly thin ; she staggers, is half unconscious, neglects her puppies, 

 and suddenly falls into a fit of a very peculiar character. It begins with, 

 and is sometimes confined to, the respiratory apparatus : she lies on her 

 side and pants violently, and the sound of her laboured breathing may be 

 heard at the distance of twenty yards. Sometimes spasms steal over her 

 limbs ; at other times the diaphragm and respiratory muscles alone are 

 convulsed. In a few hours she is certainly lost ; or, if there are moments 

 of remission, they are speedily succeeded by increased heavings. 



The practitioner unaccustomed to this fearful state of excitation, and 

 forgetful or unaware of its cause, proceeds to bleed her, and he seals her 

 fate. Although one system is thus convulsively labouring, it is because 

 others are suddenly and perfectly exhausted ; and by abstraction of the 

 vital current he reduces this last hold of life to the helpless condition of 

 the rest. There is not a more common or fatal error than this. 



The veterinary practitioner is unable to apply the tepid bath to his larger 

 patients, in order to quiet the erythism of certain parts of the system, and 

 produce an equable diffusion of nervous influence and action ; and he often 

 forgets it when he has it in his power to save the smaller ones. Let the 

 bitch in a fit be put into a bath, temperature 96 of Fahrenheit, and covered 

 with the water, her head excepted. It will be surprising to see how soon 

 the simple application of this equable temperament will quiet down the 

 erythism of the excited system. In ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, 

 she may be taken out of the bath evidently relieved, and then, a hasty and 

 not very accurate drying having taken place, she is wrapped in a blanket 

 and placed in some warm situation, a good dose of physic having been 

 previously administered. She soon breaks out in a profuse perspiration. 

 Everything becomes gradually quiet, and she falls into a deep and long 



