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XIV. — On Parturient Fever in Ewes, '■'■Giddiness accompanying 
Parturition." By Isaac Seaman. 
Prize Essay. 
Parturient fever in ewes (" giddiness accompanying parturi- 
tion") forms a very interesting and important subject for 
investigation, with the true nature of which the shepherd and 
flockmaster cannot be too well acquainted. Of the value of 
purely physiological knowledge, as assisting the practical 
breeder, there can be no doubt, for in proportion as he is pos- 
sessed of that knowledge so will mortality in his flock decrease 
from endemic and epizootic diseases. 
The term " giddiness " signifies stupor, sleepiness, delirium ; 
and is universally applied by shepherds and flockmasters to 
sheep suffering from hydatids, or water in the brain. Now, that 
we may distinguish this so-called giddiness accompanying par- 
turition in ewes from other diseases bearing the same name, I 
propose to call it parturient fever ; " for in calling different 
ailments by the same name," as observed by an eminent writer 
on Influenza in Horses, " our description of diseases becomes 
involved in obscurity ; we never agree as to the treatment, and 
investigation into their characters becomes more difficult than 
nature intended." I call it parturient fever because fever it 
really is, as the appearances before and after death will show ; 
and it does not affect the ewe at any other tune than shortly 
before and after lambing (parturition). 
On undertaking to prepare this Essay I consulted many 
eminent and extensive breeders in the counties of Cambridge- 
shire and Essex for the result of their experience in sheep- 
breeding ; also for their opinions as to cause and effects, pre- 
vention and cure, of parturient fever : and to these gentlemen I 
feel highly indebted for their kindness in furnishing me with 
much practical and valuable information. I have also been 
much assisted by notes of observation, collected by myself, of 
the general character of the disease, as it affected many flocks 
during the lambing seasons of 1852-53. It was then that I had 
an opportunity of witnessing the disease in all its stages, and of 
examining many bodies after death ; and statistics, so far as 
ascertained from these sources, tend to demonstrate that the 
breeder owes his success or non-success to his own peculiar 
management, that management being in accordance or at variance 
with the laws that govern the operations of the organs of repro- 
duction during the latter stages of gestation. It is not mere 
chance or luck that parturient fever or any other disease prevails 
endemically ; there must be predisposing and exciting causes, 
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