METRITIS, METROPEIIITONITIS, AXD PARTURIENT FEVER. 631 



after the operation of ovariotomy, similar pathological alterations arc 

 found. 



With regard to chronic metritis, various changes have been observed. 

 In some cases the uterus has contained a considerable quantity of fetid 

 pus, or muco-pui-ulent matter of a white or gray hue ; while the 

 mucous membrane has been gray or dark-coloured, thickened and 

 softened, and the cotyledons infiltrated, softened, or even indurated ; 

 the vaginal mucous membrane is also infiltrated and indurated in some 

 cases. 



Causes. 



The predisposing cause of metritis, metro-peritonitis, and parturient 

 fever, is the parturient or puerperal state. It is true that septic infec- 

 tion, with its train of symptoms, may occur at other periods and from 

 various causes ; but metritis and its complications are, as a rule, 

 observed only after abortion or parturition. 



The occasional causes of metritis, and therefore of metro-peritonitis 

 and fever, are injuries to the genital canal or interior of the uterus, 

 during or after birth. The manipulations necessary for the ai'tificial 

 removal of the fojtus or its envelopes, and by which the mucous mem- 

 brane is abraded or wounded, are a frequent cause ; inversion of the 

 organ, and especially when it has been exposed for some time to the 

 air and the action of irritating substances, or bruised or lacerated in 

 returning it, is another cause. Ketention of the foetus or foetal 

 envelopes has also been given as a cause of metritis. 



But other cases have been noted in which birth was easy and natural, 

 and at the usual time ; and yet towards the second, fourth, or sixth 

 day after parturition, the animal began to lose its appetite, the vulva 

 became swollen, fever set in, and all the symptoms of metro-peritonitis 

 became rapidly developed. In these cases, the occurrence of disease 

 has been attributed to some imprudence in management, which brings 

 about derangement in the functions of the skin or digestive organs — 

 such as exposing the animal to wet and cold out of doors or draughts 

 of cold air in stables, giving it cold water to drink, or unsuitable 

 food. 



Sometimes the disease occurs among such a large number of animals 

 almost simultaneously, that it has been looked upon as epizootic, and due 

 to a miasma. More particularly has this been the case with parturient 

 fever, but which must now be considered as due solely to the absorp- 

 tion of septic matter. 



The production of parturient fever in animals, as in the human 

 female, requires two conditions : (1) a fresh wound by which the septic 

 poison can enter. The wound need not be large, but it appears to be 

 almost essential that it is recent — for suppurating or granulating sores 

 do not absorb, so long as the infecting agent does not destroy the 

 surface. If the mucous membrane is intact and protected by its 

 epithelium, absoi-ption is also prevented ; (2) an active septic substance, 

 either produced in the animal which is to be the subject of parturient 

 fever — auto-infection, or introduced from without — external infection. 



Birth rarely takes place in animals without more or less laceration 

 or abrasion of the cen'ix uteri, vagina, or labia of the vulva ; and those 

 injuries which are on the floor of the genital canal are more likely to 

 be followed by septic fever than those on the sides or roof, simply 

 because they are brought more directly in contact with the decomposing 



