Some Observations on Parturition Fever in Ruminants. 597 
most commonly encountered, on which account it is more 
amenable to treatment, and less disposed to propagate. In ewes, 
on the contrary, although the less serious kind is met with, I 
feel certain that the truly infective form is that which more 
frequently demands attention. The great fatality, undoubted 
resistance to treatment, and tendency to spread or appear as an 
enzoijty or epizooty, are more satisfactorily accounted for on the 
assumption of the power of self-augmentation possessed by the 
virus. 
In both forms the structures and organs which are chiefly the 
seat of the diagnostic lesions are nearly similar. These are 
chiefly those situated in the pelvic cavity, the uterus, and its 
appendages, with the investing peritoneal and connective tissue 
structures. 
Causation. — Undoubtedly the great determining influence in 
the production of both forms of the fever now under review 
is the parturient state, in which, from a combination of in- 
fluences, general and local, the susceptibility of the animal to 
adverse influences, and particularly to both septic poisoning and 
septic infection, is largely augmented as compared with that of 
non-parturient animals. In many instances, particularly in the 
cow, in which, as already noticed, the more manageable form of 
septic poisoning is more frequently experienced, we seem not to 
require to travel far for an explanation of the disturbed con- 
dition. The power of changed and putrefying animal tissues 
and fluids to produce this haemal contamination being granted, 
we find that there exists in many animals putrefying and 
septic matter, together with facilities for its absorption. The 
former may be found in a dead foetus, in placental membranes, 
and uterine fluids, retained in whole or in part, and under- 
going decomposition. While from injuries sustained in effect- 
ing delivery by mechanical means, accidents occurring to the 
parturient passages, as inversion with rough handling in re- 
placement, we observe wounds or abrasions which offer a free 
access to the injurious fluids ; while we must not forget that in 
great numbers of instances these facilities of open surfaces for 
absorption occur without our being aware of their existence. 
Probably these latter are frequently the cases where exposure or 
fatigue, or both conjoined, have been accredited with the pro- 
duction of this manifestation of the fever. No doubt cases of 
the fever may be encountered in cows where none of these 
agencies seem to have had a chance of operation, or at least 
where their position as the true inducing cause cannot be 
substantiated. 
Amongst sheep the appearance of this fever would not unfre- 
quently seem to develop characters of an occult and mysterious 
