254 Ohscrrations on the Disease of the Coic, 
necessarily belong to inflammation ; but it is the leading dia- 
gnostic symptom of " dropping." 
Again, in inflammation of the uterus, death rarely follows in 
less than four to five days ; while in dropping, forty-eight hours, 
with very few exceptions, is the extreme period of duration. 
Cows which, as " in-calvers," are sent from market to market, 
undergoing exertion thereby, are rendered less liable to dropping, 
but not to inflammation. Lastly, I may repeat that every 
variety of animal is liable to inflammation of the uterus, but 
the cow only to parturient apoplexy. 
Pathology. — From what has been advanced, it will be seen 
that I regard " dropping after calving " as true apoplexy, due 
to the act of parturition. In what way the apoplectic attack 
may be caused is not so easy to determine. Some persons have 
spoken of its production by the " throwing back into the system of 
tlie access of blood which had been sent to the fcetus " in utero. 
Strictly speaking, no such throwing back takes place ; the fcetus 
having its own independent set of blood-vessels. It is quite true, 
however, that by the contraction of the walls of the uterus after 
delivery its vessels are closed against the passage of the blood to 
a very great extent, and consequently for a time repletion of all 
the other vessels of the body may be said to exist. Doubtless 
the rapidity with which balance of the circulation is obtained 
will be in proportion to the activity of the several secretory 
organs, and perhaps by none more so than by the mammary 
glands. A free secretion of milk, especially charged as it now 
is with colostrum, gives earlier and more complete relief to the 
vessels than would be afforded by any other secretion — milk 
and blood being so closely allied in composition. It is, how- 
ever, to be remembered that this secretion often precedes partu- 
rition, and continues until arrested by the apoplectic attack ; and 
not only so, but until coma succeeds, and that during this time 
all the other secreting glands are apparently in a state of activity. 
Simple repletion of the blood-vessels, under such circumstances, 
would be early removed, and doubtless fairly completed by the 
third or fourth day, not U7itil which time, however, will the attack 
in many instances be found to occur. 
With reference to the relationship existing between the 
nervous system and the secretion of milk, it may be affirmed 
that no secretion is so much under the influence of nerve force. 
It is not improbable that science may hereafter establish a close 
connection between an attack of parturient apoplexy and the 
capability of the mammary glands not merely to secrete but to 
freely effect the formation of the granulated cells of colostrum, 
with which the first milk is so largely charged. By their free pro- 
duction, it may certainly be affirmed that fatty matter is effectively 
and in a rapid manner eliminated from the blood, thus reducing 
