CONDITIONS FOLLOWING PARTURITION. 117 
vitulary fever; septicaemia, puerperal eclampsia, drop- 
ping after calving, parturient apoplexy, parturient 
collapse, etc. 
Parturient apoplexy may be said to be an acute 
post-partum disease, observed in all the domestic 
animals, but especially in the Cow. Not only so, it may 
be said to be almost confined to the plethoric animals 
of the improved breeds. The disease is peculiar to the 
Cow in the parturient state, and to those animals that 
are the ‘deepest milkers”. Indifferent milkers are 
almost exempt. It is exceptional for the disease to 
make its appearance before parturition. It usually 
occurs from about twelve to forty-eight hours after that 
act, and generally after giving birth to the third calf, 
the parturition being an easy one. Law says, that the 
two factors, plethora and parturition, may be set apart 
as pre-eminently the causes of this disease. The same 
authority remarks that the condition of the blood- 
globules in the suffering Cow attest the extreme richness 
and density of the blood, and that he has never examined 
the blood of avictim of this disease without finding the 
red corpuscles reduced to little more than one-half their 
usual size, due to density of the liquid in which they 
float. 
Symptoms.—In many cases the disease sets in 
suddenly, and without any premonitory symptoms; 
running its course and terminating fatally in a very 
short space of time. In some instances, the lacteal 
secretion may be diminished or suspended before the 
symptoms appear. The Cow hangs her head, stops 
feeding, and there is an uneasy movement from one 
