168 KENNEL DISEASES. 
CHAPTER V. 
PUERPERAL FEVER. 
PUERPERAL fever, as the name implies, is a fever that occurs in dams during 
the puerperal state; that is, while, or shortly after, giving birth. 
There may, possibly, be other causes of this malady, but certainly the most 
common cause is infection. 
Formerly it was generally believed that of puerperal infection there was only 
one variety; but at the present time the popular theory is that there are at least 
two varieties, one of which is produced by the absorption of the products of putre- 
faction, while the other is the result of absorption of septic material and germs, 
And the acceptance of this has led to the selection of the terms putrid infection 
and septic infection as appropriate for their classes. 
Considering at length putrid infection, it is due to putrefactive alkaloids called 
ptomaines, or to chemical products. It is not contagious or inoculable; nor do 
germs appear in the blood of the victims. 
When produced by ptomaines, it is the result of putrefactive bacteria only ; 
and when occasioned by chemical products, the process and effects are similar to 
those produced by toxic doses of poisonous medicines. 
These in the main are the causes of putrid infection. 
Septic infection, on the other hand, is due to germs and their products. 
These, called microbes, enter the system, multiply, and develop what are termed 
leucomaines. 
It is contagious and inoculable; and in the blood of the victims are found 
germs similar to those introduced. 
The special germs are of malignant potency, and if only a very few gain 
admission to the system of a healthy subject intense infection will likely result. 
Septic infection may be produced by a previous case, and probably by cer- 
tain other diseases, in which poisoning of the blood is also occasioned by 
germs. 
These in brief are the distinctive features of the two forms of infection. 
Recurring to putrid infection, the condition which appears most favorable for 
that is retention, in the uterus, of dead puppies, after-birth tissues, or blood- 
clots. 
Decomposition occurring in these, ptomaines are produced and absorbed, and 
there is putrid infection and puerperal fever. 
