POST PARTUM PARALYSIS. 601 



Treatment. 



Treatment must also depend upon the diagnosis. When the para- 

 plegia is due to congestion of the spinal cord, cold water may be applied 

 to the loins continuously by means of rugs kept saturated, or at fre- 

 ijuent intervals by a large syringe or garden hose. After a few days, 

 blisters, or even the actual cautery, should be applied to the loins, and 

 the subcutaneous injection of strychnia resorted to. The condition of 

 the bowels and bladder must be attended to ; the former being regulated 

 by feeding, and if necessary by laxatives, the latter by diuretics. 

 Electricity may be useful in some cases, and particularly when only one 

 limb is involved. 



In all cases, the state of the uterus should be ascertained, and if it 

 is unsatisfactory, then remedial measures should be adopted with regard 

 to it. 



When the animal cannot turn itself, this must be done by its 

 attendants ; and if it is a valuable one, and the paralysis is likely to 

 continue for some time, slinging for a short period every day may be 

 tried. 



When due to other causes, the treatment must be adapted to the 

 circumstances of the case ; with Cows, however, unless there are special 

 reasons to the contrary, and if they are in good condition, it is often 

 advisable to have them killed for food. 



CHAPTER VI. 

 Eclampsia. 



Thkre can be no doubt that tlie malady described in this work as 

 parturient apoplexy or puerperal collapse, has often been confounded 

 with the disease known in woman as "eclampsia," and which is also 

 witnessed, with some slight ditTerences, in animals. For it seems to 

 be now admitted that the eclampsia of woman and the malady of the 

 Cow are nearly, if not altogether, identical ; and the same or similar 

 causes may be in operation in the production of both. In the first 

 place, the eclampsia of woman is essentially epileptic or convulsive, the 

 convulsions being of a tonic and clonic nature ; and in animals con- 

 \'ul3ions are generally present, and, indeed, maybe regarded as a constant 

 symptom. 



The symptomatology of the disease in the human female and in 

 animals differs in some particulars, owing no doubt to differences in 

 organization. In woman there are premonitory signs — such as uneasi- 

 ness, headache, nausea, twitch ings, sudden vertigo. Then the attack 

 begins by rapid contractions of the muscles of the face, eyelids, and 

 eyeballs, the latter rolling about in their orbits. These movements 

 soon extend to the head, neck, and other parts of the body, and are 

 rapidly replaced by tonic contraction of all the extensor muscles either 

 of the trunk or limbs. The respiration is stertorous or suspended ; the 

 pulse — at first full andstrong— isso weak that it is scarcely perceptible; 

 the tongue is protruded from the mouth, and often bitten ; foam appears 

 between the lips, and unconsciousness is complete. The attack may last 

 for twenty or thirty seconds ; then the tonic convulsions are replaced 

 by those of a clonic kind, preceded by a general state of rigidity. The 

 movements are jerking, and so convulsive that they shake the whole 



