252 
Observations on the Disease of the Coir, 
of milk exercises considerable predisposing influence, and bad 
milkers are therefore, as a rule, found to be far less susceptible to 
the disease. As the mammary glands may be said to be at their 
fullest development, if not immediately at their greatest activity, 
at the third calving, so it would appear that adultism becomes 
more dangerous when combined with the power to produce a 
full lacteal secretion at the time of parturition. 
Besides this combination, susceptibility is greatly increased 
by breed : well-bred Yorkshire cows and E)iglish-hred Jersey 
cows being most susceptible, thriving Suffolk and Ayrshire and 
Dutch cows following in the rear. Well-bred animals have, as 
is well known, an hereditary predisposition to early maturity, 
and even plethora. And although it cannot be said that " good 
milkers" are plethoric animals, still an innate tendency, depend- 
ing on breed, to accumulate flesh, materially adds to their sus- 
ceptibility to be attacked with the disease. Generous feeding, 
more especially if associated with this hereditary predisposition, 
and a capability of yielding a full quantity of milk, will neces- 
sarily increase this liability. It has often been observed that 
cows of this description, which in the latter period of ute»o- 
gestation have ceased to give milk, and are generously fed, and 
perhaps allowed to remain at pasture in the summer when the 
rest of the herd are driven home for milking, have their suscep- 
tibility even thereby increased. These several things explain, 
in part, the well-established fact of the disease being prevalent 
in some districts and rarely seen in others. 
Some persons have sought an explanation of this localisation 
of parturient apoplexy simply in the character of the soil, the 
rich quality of the food, and the generous feeding of the animals. 
It is true that on sandy and poor soils the malady is rare ; but 
its prevalence in other districts does not exclusively depend on 
an opposite condition of the soil, nor on the good management 
or richness of the grazing land, nor on the high feeding of the 
cows ; nor, may I add, is it due to the large number of animals 
which are kept within a limited area. In many dairy districts, 
where these conditions exist, but where well-bred and good milk- 
ing cows are sparsely distributed, very few cases of parturient 
apoplexy are seen. I am practically familiar with many such 
districts, as with others where the malady is exceedingly rife. 
In speaking of the causes which favour predisposition, the 
influence of the weather must not be lost sight of. In the 
height of summer, although fewer cows may calve within a 
given area, more cases will occur than in the spring, when the 
larger number of calves are born. It is also noteworthy that in 
some years the disease is comparatively rare, while in others it 
is very prevalent. 
In considering the predisposing causes of the attack, attention 
