610 OBSERVATIONS ON CASES OF PARTURIENT APOPLEXY. 
Unless some sucli steps are taken in other parts of the country 
similarly affected,, it is to be feared we must not yet expect 
the extinction of this fearful disease. 
OBSERVATIONS ON CASES OF PARTURIENT 
APOPLEXY. 
By A. H. Santy, M.R.C.V.S., Market Deeping. 
Should you deem the following practical remarks of suffi- 
cient importance to merit insertion in your Journal, I have 
much pleasure in placing them at your disposal. 
Why do so many cases of parturient apoplexy in cows 
prove fatal ? Is it for want of proper treatment ? or do we 
rightly understand the nature of the malady ? 
I think we must all admit that the brain is the seat of the 
disease, and that congestion of that organ, sometimes result- 
ing in effusion or rupture of the vessels, is the most frequent 
cause of death. In one case which I had this spring the 
animal seemed on the point of recovery, the attendants were 
agreeably surprised to find so much improvement from the 
treatment that had been pursued, when very suddenly the 
animal died. On a post-mortem examination I found about 
one drachm of extravasated blood on the brain. To my mind, 
however, these are not the worst cases we have to fight 
against. 
We are well aware of that mild form of “ dropping after 
calving,” as the disease is called, in which paralysis of the 
limbs alone exists, and in which the brain may be considered 
to be healthy. These are the cases in which quacks obtain so 
much repute for getting the animals up. It is not to such cases 
that I now refer, but to those in which delirium is followed by 
total unconsciousness. We find our patient staggering about 
like a drunken man till she falls. She rolls her head about ; 
makes attempts to rise, perhaps succeeds, and then falls 
again. Unconsciousness and stertorous breathing, &c., soon 
follow. Sensation is so completely gone that the strongest 
liniments applied to the most sensitive parts fail to rouse it 
in the least. 
Now, putting effusion, or extravasated blood, treatment, 
either good, bad, or indifferent, out of the question, it may be 
asked, what causes so many fatal cases, and prevents us from 
achieving that victory over so terrible a malady which our 
exertions would entitle us to ? In my humble opinion it is 
