235 



upon the system. The effect is the same as when a flux of some 

 standing is suddenly checked; either some of the excretory 

 organs exert their power of vicarious actions, or a sudden 

 increase in blood pressure takes place. This is the view that is 

 usually taken, but I think it a wrong one, as in every cow, at the 

 time of parturition, there is this excess of blood thrown back 

 upon the system ; but nature has provided for this. It is quite 

 another thing in the case of the flux, that was checked by admin- 

 istering powerful astringents, which is acting contrary to nature. 



Still another thinks that it is such a derangement of the sym- 

 pathetic nervous system as seldom to admit of recovery — until 

 (finally) apopletic lesions result. The first part of the above, I 

 think, is nearest to the point, but the latter part is the stumbling 

 block over which nearly all fall — that is in believing the nervous 

 derangement causes apoplexy. / 



When I commenced practice, some eighteen years ago, I fol- 

 lowed the teaching I have just mentioned, and my milk fever 

 patients nearly all died. This state of affairs provoked me very 

 much. I made a number of -post-mortem examinations of the 

 animals that had died of the disease, and failed to find the apo- 

 pletic lesion described. Of course, I found redness and some 

 fullness of the blood vessels, but no more than one would find in 

 making a post-mortem examination of animals dying of (other) 

 diseases not apoplectic. 



I concluded from this that the disease was not congestion of 

 the brain and spinal cord. I then took up the nervous theory 

 and was supported by the following facts: First. The cows 

 which, became affected with this malady are nearly all very fat 

 and flabby, while in some few cases the animals are very thin 

 and weak. Such animals are barely able to cope with the vio- 

 lent strain and nervous exhaustion which takes place at this 

 period. Second. The season of the year most fruitful to this 

 disease is in the warm, enervating weather of the spring and 

 early summer, when the grasses are soft and succulent, which 

 increases the flabby condition of the already too soft animals. 



Taking these facts into consideration, I changed the treat- 



