DISEASES IMMEDIATELY CONNECTED WITH PARTURITION. 167 



Other muscles so that there was a continual champing the 

 jaws, and an abundant salivation. The senses were not 

 impaired, however. An antispasmodic treatment was adopted. 

 The attack lasted four hours, when recovery took place. 



" Mauri " (Ibid., p. 675) '"' reports another instance of this 

 malady occurring in a bitch, eight years old, and very fat. It 

 had pupped twelve days before, and suckled four puppies. 

 When brought to the Veterinary School it was lying on its 

 side, though it could raise itself on its sternum — it panted • 

 much, its mouth was wide open and much saliva flowed there- 

 from — the tongue was pendent. The respiratory movements 

 were much quickened, but very shallow. The eyes were wide 

 open and slightly squinted to the left. Violent convulsions, 

 as if produced by electric discharges, agitated the limbs, and 

 threw them into a state of forced extension ; if a group of 

 extensor muscles — such as the patellar — were seized in the 

 hand, the energetic contractions, rapidly repeated, could be 

 easily felt. Nothing of the kind could be .distinguished in 

 the flexor muscles. The senses were not affected. The 

 urine did not offer any trace of albumen. In the course of 

 the day the symptoms disappeared, and the animal recovered. 



" Mauri alludes to four additional cases of eclampsia — two 

 in the cow and two in the bitch, all presenting similar symp- 

 toms to the foregoing." 



SEPTIK^MIA PUERPERALIS. 



Inflammation of the uterus and septikcemia puerperalis 

 occur in all the domesticated animals. The latter would 

 appear to be very frequent in the bitch."* 



Parturient septiksemia may arise from the retention and 

 putrefaction of a dead fcetus,t or the introduction of putre- 

 fying matter into the blood through inoculation. 



« Fleming's " Veterinary Obstetrics," p. 632. 



t " It is well known that bitches which retain the foetus .n the genital 

 canal for any length of time (eighteen hours or thereabouts)" frequently 



