622 PATHOLOGY OF PARTURITION. 



BOOK V. 



PATHOLOGY OF PARTUEITION. 



Under the head of Pathology of Parturition, it is intended to include 

 those diseases which accompany or follow this act, and are more or less 

 related to it. Some of these maladies are of great pathological interest 

 and practical importance, and deserve the closest study. The parturient 

 or, if the term might be employed, puerperal period, is a very remark- 

 able and critical one in the life of the female animal, and it becomes all 

 the more so as the creature is submitted to the influences of domestica- 

 tion, and rendered more and more artificial by skilful breeding and 

 management. 



During pregnancy, a large amount of nutritive material has been 

 abstracted from the parent to nourish and develop the foetus, and when 

 birth takes place this is retained until the lacteal secretion has been 

 fully established. Consequent upon this reflux, there is established a 

 kind of plethora which, together with the nervous excitement and 

 succeeding prostration induced by the straining and pain of labour, 

 renders the animal more susceptible to the influence of morbific causes 

 of various kinds. Hence we have maladies peculiar to the parturient 

 state, or if witnessed at other times, at least much aggravated when 

 they appear at this period. Though the parturient diseases of animals 

 are not so numerous as those of the human female, yet they are neither 

 unimportant nor few" ; and it is possible that, with the advance of 

 veterinary science, their number will be increased — so far as exact 

 definition and differentiation are concerned. 



In this respect, the prominent part infection by septic material- 

 produced by the action of micro-organisms — plays in the development 

 of parturient diseases is to be remarked. It is but recently that this 

 agency has been recognised as one well worthy of consideration in 

 veterinary pathology ; and the closer its effects are studied, so the more 

 inclined are we to attribute many diseases— and particularly those of 

 the parturient state — to one common source, septic infection. 



Of course, there are other maladies or disturbances, chiefly of a local 

 character, the etiology of which cannot at present be traced to septosis, 

 and which merit notice in this part of our work. 



The diseases which we have to consider are : 1. Vaginitis ; 2. Leu- 

 corrlicea ; 3. Metritis, Metro-peritonitis, a,\idi Parturient Fever; 4. Par- 

 turient Aiooplexy ; 5. Post piartum Paraplegia; 6. Parturient Eclampsia ; 

 7. Epilepsia Uterina or Mania Pucrperalis ; 8. Parturient Laminitis ; 

 9. Mammitis; 10. Agalactia; 11. Injuries to the Teats ; Diverse Injuries. 



CHAPTER I. 



Vaginitis. 



Inflammation of the vagina may exist independently, but it is generally 

 an accompaniment of inflammation of the uterus, or "metritis," which, 

 being the more serious evil, masks this malady. When occurring after 

 parturition it is generally due to protracted and laborious delivery, 



