354 BOVINE OBSTETRICS 



description of it in bis treatise, " Verhandeling over het ver- 

 lossen der Koeien " (treatise on bovine obstetrics) ; but his 

 remarks show that he dealt both with parturient paresis and 

 puerperal septicsemia. Jorg (1818) terms the disease milk 

 fever. Mitchell gives a close description of it 1820. Binz 

 (1830) designates it as sporadic typhoid milh fever. Bychner 

 calls it adynamia nervosa generalis, Bainard fevre vitulaire. 

 Franck described the disease in 1876 as eclampsia piierperalis. 

 He was the first one to separate parturient paresis from septi- 

 caemia puerperalis, thus putting an end to the confusion exist- 

 ing with regard to the two diseases. 



Friedberger and Frohner later differentiated between par- 

 turient paresis, septicaemia puerperalis and a mixed form, 

 which offered clinically the symptoms of a parturient paresis 

 but from an anatomo-pathological point of view the picture of 

 a septic inflammation of the uterine mucosa. The existence of 

 the latter form is undeniable, although rave. Among many 

 diseased animals slaughtered I observed several times that the 

 diagnosis "parturient paresis" was called for intra vitam, 

 while the autopsy offered the picture of a septicaemia. 



Etiology. — Tliere is no other disease the aetiology of which 

 exhibits greater differences of opinion than this one ; conse- 

 quently a number of hypotheses exist, trying to explain it. 



1. The hypothesis, according to which parturient paresis 

 is due to circulatory disturbances after parturition. 



Franck supposes that contraction of the uterus is followed 

 by an increased pressure in the aorta in case the flow of blood 

 to the udder and skin is interfered with. When these channels 

 of the blood, which flows during pregnancy to the uterus, no 

 longer are able to take Tip the increased amount, back pressure 

 arises and with it an increase of pressure in the aorta. The 

 latter produces cerebral congestion and oedema with subse- 

 quent cerebral anaemia. This process, according to Franck, is 

 supported by: 1, cardiac hypertrophy; 2, plethora; 3, 

 hydraemia. 



Franck's theory has found many supporters, although 

 some phenomena, such as the occurrence of parturient pro- 



