DISEASES FOLLOWING PARTURITION. 231 



there is such prominent evidence of congestion of head and brain that 

 it may be called the congestive form, par excellence, without thereby 

 intimating that the torpid form is independent of congestion. 



In the congestive form there is sudden dullness, languor, hanging 

 back in the stall, or drooping the head, uneasy movements of the hind 

 limbs or tail ; if the cow is moved, she steps unsteadily, or even stag- 

 gers ; she no longer notices her calf or her food ; the eyes appear red 

 and their pupils dilated; the weakness increases and the cow lies 

 down or falls and is thenceforward unable to rise. At this time the 

 pulse is usually full and bounding and the temperature raised, though 

 not invariably so; the head, homs, and ears being especially hot and 

 the veins of the head full, while the visible mucous membranes of 

 nose and eyes are deeply congested. 



The cow may lie on her breastbone with her feet beneath the body 

 and her head turned sleepily round, with the nose resting on the right 

 flank; or, if worse, she may be stretched full on her side, with even 

 the head extended, though at times it is suddenly raised and again 

 dashed back on the ground. At such times the legs, fore and hind, 

 struggle convulsively, evidently through imconscious nervous spasm. 

 By this time the unconsciousness is usually complete; the eyes are 

 glazed, their pupils widely dilated, and their lids are not moved when 

 the ball of the eye is touched with the finger. Pricking the skin with 

 a pin also fails to bring any wincing or other response. The pulse, 

 at first from 50 to 70 per minute, becomes more accelerated and 

 weaker as the disease advances. The breathing is quickened, becom- 

 ing more and more so with the violence of the symptoms, and at first 

 associated with moaning (in exceptional cases, bellowing), it may, 

 before death, become slow, deep, sighing, or rattling (stertorous). 

 The temperature, at first usually raised, tends to become lower as 

 stupor and utter insensibility and coma supervene. The bowels, 

 which may have moved at the onset of the attack, become torpid or 

 completely paralyzed, and, unless in case of improvement, they are 

 not likely to operate again. Yet this is the result of paralysis and 

 not of induration of the feces, as often shown by the semiliquid 

 pultaceous condition of the contents after death. The bladder, too, 

 is paralyzed and fails to expel its contents. A free action of either 

 bladded or bowels, or of both, is always a favorable symptom. The 

 urine contains sugar, in aniount proportionate to the severity of the 

 attack. 



In nearly all cases the torpor of the digestive organs results in gas- 

 tric disorder; the paunch becomes the seat of fermentation, produc- 

 ing gas, which causes it to bloat up like a dnmi. There are frequent 

 eructations of gas and liquid and solid food, which, reaching the par- 

 alyzed throat, pass in part into the windpipe and cause inflammations 

 of the air passages and lungs. 



