384 
Parturient Fever in Eiccs. 
such as want of stamina on the part of the nervous and vascular 
systems, caused by withholding such food as tends to support 
them, and thus preventing the organs of those systems from per- 
forming the functions for which they were by nature destined. 
Parturient fever is an affection of common occurrence, and was 
attended with much fatality amongst the flocks in the counties 
of Cambridgeshire and Essex during the lambing seasons of 
1852-53. It is remarkable for the suddenness of its attack, the 
rapidity with which it runs through its different stages, and its 
general mortality to those affected by it. It is so violent in its 
attack and rapid in its progress tliat it may prove fatal in twenty- 
four hours, if not arrested by the most decisive means. It affects 
most commonly ewes of a delicate constitution, such as the Sussex 
Downs ; the more hardy Lincoln and Norfolk ewe are compara- 
tively exempt from the disease. It manifests a more severe form 
in aged ewes and ewes bearing twin-lambs. 
Parturient fever may be defined a disease of low inflammatory 
character, involving more or less extensively the organs of repro- 
duction, digestion, and respiration ; the brain and spinal marrow 
are also involved. There is generally a greater determination of 
blood to some organs than to others ; mostly the uterus is first 
and principally affected, in some the bowels and lining mem- 
brane of the abdomen (peritoneum), in others the lungs ; the 
brain and spinal marrow are often very much affected. It shows 
itself generally during the last twenty days' gestation, and within 
the first six days after parturition : the average duration of the 
disease is from seven to fourteen days ; some die in two days, 
whilst others linger a month. 
Causes. — Any circumstance or agency which depresses the 
power of the system, insufficient or improper food, close fold- 
ing, exposure to fatigue, to cold, and moisture, may be consi- 
dered causes of the affection. I have repeatedly noticed, where 
ewes about a month before lambing have been removed from a 
sufficiency of wholesome food to otlier possessing less nutritive 
qualities they have suffered greatly from parturient fever. Tlie 
practice of fattening sheep and ewes, being fed upon the same piece 
of turnips (the best parts of which are consumed by the former, 
v/hilst the roots and other inferior parts are consumed by the 
lattci-), ought to be abandoned ; a small fold, too — a circumstance 
so essential to the development of fat in the one, whilst highly 
injurious to the pregnant ewe, to whom exercise is of the greatest 
importance for the maintenance of health. Moist and warm 
seasons, vegetables growing luxuriantly, and the non-supply of 
dry farinaceous food, are alike productive of the affection. Fat 
condition is thought to be a grand cause of the disease. I cer- 
tainly have noticed the Sussex Downs (a breed most disposed 
