PARTURIENT APOPLEXY'— PUERPERAL COLLAPSE. 639 



The respirations may be increased to eighty or ninety per minute, 

 and this occurs more particularly when tliere is pneumonia, duo to the 

 passage of foreign matters into the bronchi — an accident frequently 

 noted in this disease. When the coma and paralysis are very marked, 

 the respirations are often slow and deep — from eight to live in the 

 minute, sighing or stertorous — indicating paralysis of the soft palate ; 

 at other times it is calm and regular. All these variations may be ob- 

 served in the same animal — the hurried, stertorous breathing succeeding 

 the quiet and deep respirations in a very abrupt manner. As the pulse 

 increases in frequency the breathing sometimes becomes slower. 



The temperature of the body is not increased, as a rule ; on the 

 contrary, it is very often below the normal standard when coma sets 

 in — Harms and Adams have found it as low as 35' Cent. (95' Fahr,). 

 According to Thomassen,^ it may be 102-2^ to 103° Fahr. at the com- 

 mencement, and in a few hours fall to 100', or even 9G\ to rise again 

 when there is improvement. Cases have been reported in which it 

 was as low as 89"6' and 90', and in the latter it ascended in three 

 hours to 100', the animal recovering. It is possible that, in the cases 

 in which these very low temperatures were noted, the anal sphincter 

 has been relaxed, so that the air passing into the rectum would make 

 it cooler. The extremities are generally icy cold, and the surface heat 

 of the trunk is irregularly distributed. 



The nmcous membrane of the mouth is pale, and saliva accumulates 

 about or flows continually from it (hence the disease is soinetimes 

 designated Ahtropfeln aus dcm Manic by the Germans). Food and 

 water are refused, and, indeed, at an early period there appears to be 

 paralysis of the pharynx and oosojihagus, and if care is not taken the 

 solids or fluids attempted to be administered may And tlicir way into 

 the air-passages, and if they do not quickly produce asphyxia, they 

 will probably give rise to pneumonia. When fluids are administered, 

 they pass down the oesophagus with a gurgling sound. The functions 

 of the rumen and digestive system are more or less suspended, and 

 the peristaltic movement of the intestines decreased. Hence we have 

 tympany, eructations, and constipation. The eructations may carry 

 fluid and food from the rumen into the pharynx, and even into the 

 nostrils, and they may pass thence into the trachea. So that we 

 may have pneumonia from this cause alone, and without attempts 

 having been made to administer food or medicine. Constipation is 

 also a marked feature of this paralysed condition, and if tympany 

 appears at an early period, it is considered an unfavourable sign by 

 some practitioners. 



All these changes in the functions of the digestive apparatus, together 

 with those of the respiratory and circulatory organs, show that the 

 pneumogastric nerves are seriously involved. 



Micturition is also, as a rule, suspended from the commencement ; 

 consequently, urine accumulates in the bladder, and it usually contains 

 sugar and a certain quantity of albumin. 



The secretion of milk may be diminished or suspended, and some- 

 times very suddenly, even before the voluntary muscles are paralysed ; 

 in other instances it may be unintemipted. 



W' hen the animal is about to recover, these symptoms may persist 

 for some hours, or even for two, three, or four days. Then it appears 

 to rouse up suddenly from the stupor into which it was plunged ; the 

 ^ Reaitil dt Midtcine Veteritiaire, 1889, p. 491. 



