rAIiTUniEXT ArorLKXV—PUEni'ERAL COLL APSE. G51 



the theory would seem to receive some support from the fact, that when 

 the milk is abundantly secreted the animal usually recovers rapidly. 



Carsten- Harms considered it an airiemia, air havin<^ entered the 

 uterine bloodvessels by aspiration, after shedding of the placenta ; and 

 in proof of this he asserts he detected the presence of air in the cerebral 

 vessels. 



Stocktleth, Lanzillotti-Buonsanti, Zundel, Raynaud, and others, have 

 maintained the hypothesis that the absorption of septic matters formed 

 in the uterus from the locliia, blood-clots or tissue debris, acted upon 

 the central nervous system and produced the rapid and characteristic 

 alterations that mark the disease. 



Abadie thought it was a mephitic poisoning, induced by the absorp- 

 tion into the blood of gases evolved in the stomach by indigestion ; 

 while Hartenstein attributed the malady to absorption of certain matters 

 formed in the muscular tissue of the uterus, and especially to the pro- 

 duction of uric acid during parturition. 



In 1885, SchmidtMiUheim published a theory with regard to the 

 genesis of the disease, which has since been adopted by some veterinary 

 notabilities. According to this authority, it is of toxic origin, and is 

 analogous to the condition observed in j^lan, and known as Botulism, 

 due to the ingestion of sausages and llesh in which a ptomaine or 

 leucomaine has been developed. These animal alkaloids produce 

 paralysis of the tongue, palate, pharnyx, larynx, oesophagus, etc., and 

 even of the digestive organs and bloodvessels, and the author of this 

 theory fancied he could trace the same morbid symptomatology in the 

 Cow as in Man. The toxine, he believed, was generated from the 

 albuminoid matters contained in the closed uterus. The supporters of 

 the view that the active agent is a poison elaborated by an excessive 

 cytolysis or histolysis of tissue — processes which, it is pointed out, are 

 extremely rapid at the pre-parturient and parturient periods — appeal to 

 clinical facts in its favour. The disease is most frequently seen in 

 plethoric animals, which also yield a large quantity of milk, in which 

 the act of parturition has been brief and easy, chiefly because the 

 progeny is small, and in which the lacteal secretion is partially or 

 entirely suspended ; while it is rarely witnessed in lean Cows which 

 give a comparatively small quantity of milk, are moderately fed, have 

 exercise, and are allowed to suckle their Calves, 



To the objection that, at the parturient period, tissue changes are 

 equally active in other species, it is stated that the great ditTerence in 

 the placenta of the Cow as compared with that of these creatures, the 

 larger vascular development, and the relatively enormous size of the 

 udder, with its vast secretory capacity, predispose to such a malady. 

 At the parturient period, it is argued, cell destruction in the Cow must 

 go on at a rate quite disproportionate to that at which it proceeds in 

 other animals, and that in every case the products of this cell change 

 must in a greater or less degree gain access to the circulation. Under 

 certain influences — dietetic, thermometric, or barometric — the milk- 

 forming functions of the udder may be arrested, and the gland-cells be 

 diverted from their natural function. The products of cell change being 

 absorbed in undue quantity, may act primarily as nerve excitants, and, 

 secondai'ily, as nerve depressants. Still further to confirm this hypo- 

 thesis, the striking analogy between puerperal collapse and haimoglo- 

 binuria in the Horse is adduced ; and the fact that both diseases can 

 frequently be arrested or their violence ameliorated in the early stages 



