84 SPECIAL CATTLE THERAPY 



ment; at least no improvement that would improve 

 the ultimate effect. 



Parturient paresis, when it occurs in its typical 

 form, is diagnosed ordinarily from the history and 

 circumstances appertaining. Typically the disease 

 makes its appearance from one to a few days after 

 parturition; atypically it appears after the lapse of 

 a greater number of days, sometimeOeven weeks or 

 months, after parturition, and in a few instances be- 

 fore the close of the period of gestation. When the 

 symptoms of parturient paresis occur before partu- 

 rition, or remotely after it, the term parturient pare- 

 sis can not be used consistently; we would suggest 

 that in this form the disease be given the name of 

 pre-parturient paresis. Whether the pre-parturient 

 form of this disease is the same as the parturient form, 

 pathologically, is a question. It is an established clin- 

 ical fact, however, that the pre-parturient form re- 

 sponds to the same treatment as the parturient. 



To take up in detail the circumstances, periods, va- 

 riations, and clinical phenomena of this disease when 

 it occurs in an atypical form would make a small 

 volume in itself. In the diagnosis of this disease in 

 an atypical form the veterinarian has to rely chiefly 

 on his powers of intuition. In this sense we can find 

 no better word than intuition; that form of diagnostic 

 intuition which comes to the practitioner only after 

 close contact with a number of cases of a given kind 

 in actual practice. To positively diagnose most of the 

 cases of atypical paresis of this form merely from the 

 symptoms and clinical manifestations is an impossi- 

 bility. What is usually termed a snap diagnosis is 

 what is called for here; the form of diagnosis which 

 old and experienced practitioners become adept* in. 

 A rapid and collective mental assimilation of the evi- 



