94 
A FEW CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ON 
PUERPERAL FEVER. 
By Mr. Archibald Wilson, of the Edinburgh Veterinary 
School. 
For the last time, on this subject, will I trouble the readers 
of The Veterinarian with a few brief remarks on this dis- 
ease; and in making these remarks, my chief object will be to 
arrive, if possible, at the truth, as,* without the love of truth, the 
love of knowledge is a mere delusion, an empty name without 
any meaning. In The Veterinarian for December there is 
a reply, from Mr. Friend, to some observations which I made on 
this disease in the previous number ; but I regret that these 
observations should have offended Mr. F., because I had no in- 
tention of doing so. I will not, however, offend any more, as 
evil is always the result. 
Before noticing any part of Mr. Friend’s last paper, allow me, 
for the sake of truth and the importance of the subject, to make 
a few remarks on what is inserted in The Veterinarian for 
March ; for there, page 142, Mr. Friend says “ that fever or 
inflammation is not a cause but a consequence , and that the origin 
of this disease (puerperal fever) was not yet traced or pointed 
out by any writer.” I scarcely think it necessary to deny the 
correctness of this statement, as every one who knows any thing 
at all about what has been written on the diseases of cattle must 
be aware that there is a lucid, a masterly account of this very 
disease, of nearly eight pages, in “The Library of Useful Know- 
ledge and if Mr. F. has not seen it (and I have no reason for 
supposing that he has), the sooner that he does so the better, as, 
excepting this very account, I had little else to guide me in the 
treatment of the first of the three cases which l sent you, and 
that was an extreme case, so utterly hopeless, that a “ London 
taught veterinarian said, when he saw her, that “ the sooner the 
butcher was sent for the better .” 
If this fever be only the “consequence” and not the “cause” 
of some other disease or diseases, attending some animals during 
parturition, then its name (puerperal fever) should be extin- 
guished forever. We certainly should call every disease by its 
proper name ; and why call this disease “ puerperal fever,” if 
it originates in the “ organic motor nerves ?” 
But let us see whether this statement be correct or not ; 
whether any of the symptoms which accompany puerperal fever 
were ever found to exist without a considerable degree of fever 
