666 PATHOLOGY OF PARTURITION. 



during pregnancy and within a variable period after parturition, and in 

 primiparae as well as in pluriparse. The symptoms are very analogous, 

 though consciousness does not appear to be so often in abeyance in 

 animals as in woman. Albuminuria certainly would appear to mark a 

 distinction, but this condition also has been noted in some animals, 

 while it is not a constant symptom in woman ; besides, the urine of 

 affected animals ha« only been casually tested, and the presence of 

 albumin in it may be as frequent in them as in the human female. 

 The difference in symptoms may be due more to the higher organisa- 

 tion of woman and the circumstances in which she is placed, than to 

 any divergence in the pathology of the malady, in the three or four 

 species in which it manifests itself. 



Scanzoni, Dubois, and some others, believed the disease to be a 

 neurosis due to reflex irritation of the spinal nervous system. Playfair^ 

 quotes a number of medical authorities to show that its etiology in 

 woman is very doubtful, though the coincident existence of albuminuria 

 seems to prove its dependence on the retention of the elements of urine 

 in the blood. But this theory has been controverted by the fact that a 

 large proportion of women had albuminuria before and during pregnancy, 

 and yet had no eclampsia ; and also that albuminuria followed the con- 

 vulsions and did not precede them, rendering it probable that this was 

 induced by the same cause that gave rise to the nervous symptoms. 



Traube and Eosenstein ascribed the occurrence of eclampsia to acute 

 cerebral anaemia, due to changes occurring in the blood during 

 pregnancy. 



Another authority (McDonald) imagined it is caused by irritation 

 of the vaso- motor centre, as the result of an anaemic condition of the blood 

 produced by the retention of effete matters which the kidneys had failed 

 to remove ; and Haultain- considered it to be due primarily to renal 

 insufficiency ; this gives rise to fits, from a poisoned state of the blood 

 causing general extreme arterial tension through contraction of the 

 peripheral arterioles. 



With regard to the etiology and pathology of the disorder in animals, 

 Hertwig, speaking of the Bitch, thought the disease might be caused 

 by chills, the loss of offspring, and consequent stagnation of milk, and 

 mental emotion. Zundel asserted that it only occurred in Bitches 

 while suckling, and only in those of the smaller breeds had he observed 

 it, these having been well fed and being rather plethoric. Mauri also, and 

 others, think plethora a favourable condition for the development of 

 eclampsia, as they never observed it in lean animals ; but in Cows those 

 in poor condition appear to be as liable to it as highly-fed ones. Clark 

 firmly believes that the primary cause, especially in post partum cases, 

 is reflex irritation of the uterine nerve-centres, basing this belief on his 

 observation that the attacks in the Cow occur most frequently from the 

 eighth to the twelfth day after calving, this being the period at which 

 the " second cleansing " appears. In all his cases the weather was un- 

 favourable, being cold and stormy, with east and north-east winds ; and 

 this, in his estimation, was a potent factoi' — causing chill, which, acting 

 directly on the nerve-centres of the uterus, produces reflex irritation of 

 the spinal system, which again induces albuminuria. 



In the only case I met with in the Bitch, I was inchned to attribute 

 the attack to excessive lactation, the progeny being too numerous. 



^ Srkvce of Midwifery. 



- Edtnburijh Afali.idl Jonnia/. 



