PARTURITION FEVER. 



401 



In order to justify this division, we advance the following physio- 

 logical and etiological considerations : 



1. The healthy uterine mucous membrane is favorably situated, 

 anatomically and physiologically, for the absorption of the dissolved 

 chemical principles, and consequently of toxic substances (Ellen- 

 berger) ; it possesses the same properties to a more marked degree 

 when modified by the puerperal condition ; it is irrigated by a 

 larger number of blood and lymphatic vessels. In herbivorous 

 -animals, contrary to what exists in the carnivora, the uterine 

 mucous membrane does not show any post-partum wound ; often it 

 does not present any door of entrance to the corpuscular, mycotic, 

 or bacillary elements, but it may absorb the dissolved noxious prod- 

 ucts. In these animals ptomaine poisoning may take place through 

 the intact uterine mucous membrane. 



2. The uterine and vaginal wounds which are produced acci- 

 dentally during parturition or normally by the elimination of the 

 maternal placenta, in the carnivorous and omnivorous animals, are 

 portals of entrance for toxic matters and the germ elements (bac- 

 teria). Septic poisoning and infection may thus occur, isolated or 

 simultaneously. 



3. The uterus and vagina represent natural culture-chambers for 

 the micro-organisms conveyed by the atmosphere, or by the hands or 

 instruments of the obstetrician, and which come either from the local 

 walls or from sick animals in the neighborhood. The utero- vaginal 

 mucous membrane, covered with lochia and placental detritus, con- 

 stitutes a very favorable culture-ground for these noxious agents, 

 and, when air has access to the uterus, may easily produce septic 

 infection, putrid poisoning, and pyemia. The phenomena of decom- 

 position, which take place when protected from the air, result in the 

 production of ptomaines or leucomaines. 



4. The micro-organisms which come into play here, and the poi- 

 sons which they generate, have nothing very particular, so far as 

 their pathological rôle is concerned and the manifestations that they 

 produce. In fact the same agents are the etiological factors of a 

 number of infectious diseases (malignant œdema, phlegmon, ery- 

 sipelas, septicemia, putrid poisoning, botulism and allantiasis, 

 mycotic enteritis). Yitulary fever differs only from these latter 

 affections by the localization of the process ; it consists of an infec- 

 tion or intoxication starting from the uterus and related to parturi- 

 tion, while the preceding morbid conditions have their starting-point 



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