commonly known as Dropping after Calving. 
253 
may also be directed to the conformation of bovine animals, 
their liability to great excitation at the time of parturition, 
and their idiosyncrasy or natural tendency to brain disturb- 
ance especially when suffering from diseases which implicate 
the functions of the stomachs, and none the less also of the 
uterus and other organs. Compared with simple-stomached 
herbivora, and with many other ruminants, bovine animals are 
short-necked, and are provided with a more capacious venous 
system for the return of the blood from the brain. This latter 
anatomical peculiarity probably depends on the greater length of 
time which they naturally occupy in grazing, and the necessary 
pendent position of the head during the whole of such time. 
The shortness of the neck may, however, exert an influence also 
in the production of that excited condition of the brain which 
is often observed both in cows and heifers immediately after 
parturition in the defence of their young. Their ordinary docile 
habit is not unfrequently changed to such an extent as to amount 
to parturient delirium, rendering it dangerous to approach them, 
and not unfrequently leading to their killing their offspring. 
Conformation and advanced age in cows, as in the human 
subject, are powerful agents in the production of apoplectic 
attacks. Susceptibility is also increased by a previous attack. 
Cows which recover from the disease are exceedingly liable to 
become victims to it at the next calving. Exceptions are, how- 
ever, now and then met with ; but the danger is so great that 
no risk of the kind should be run. 
In the preceding observations I have endeavoured to explain 
most of the causes which increase the susceptibility of an animal 
to be attacked, and I here add that among such causes is that of 
the period of utero-gestation being fully completed. The malady 
does not attend, or very rarely, on abortion or premature labour, 
nor even on protracted labour, especially if manual assistance 
has been necessary to effect delivery. 
Inflammation of the uterus, with which dropping has so long 
been confounded, follows commonly enough on first births, and 
in young and also impoverished animals and bad milkers, as well 
as on cases of abortion, premature labours, and mechanically-assisted 
deliveries. These, indeed, are fruitful sources of inflammation 
of the uterus, but not of apoplectic attacks. 
Another marked difference between the two affections is the 
time which elapses subsequent to delivery and the occurrence of 
ill-health. Inflammation of the uterus rarely shows itself before 
the fourth or fifth day after parturition, and is always preceded 
by febrile excitement and its concomitants, whereas, as has been 
stated, the susceptibility to parturient apoplexy has either greatly 
diminished or entirely passed away, by the expiration of the third, 
or fourth day at the furthest, after delivery. Coma also does not 
