148 
PUERPERAL OK MILK FEVER IN CATTLE. 
action in the organic nerves? For what purpose does the great 
organic nerve distribute its filaments to the branches of every 
considerable artery, if not for a motor one? And who has 
proved that it does not accompany them, even in their minutest 
ramifications, for the same purpose ? If such really be the case, 
I can readily conceive that a partial stoppage of the blood may 
be produced by this necessary influence being withdrawn, and 
that thus the disease of these nerves may act directly in bring- 
ing on inflammation. 
Next comes, Difficult deglutition. Here there will not be much 
trouble, I conceive, to trace the source to loss of nervous influence 
from organic motor nerves. If we bear in mind that the nerves sup- 
plied to the pharynx are chiefly branches from the 9th, or glosso- 
pharyngeus, and from the 10th, or cerebro-visceral ; and that all 
the constrictors of the oesophagus are directly under the influence 
of organic nerves ; it will, I think, be sufficient to account for this 
difficulty, by assuming, in the absence of all inflammatory action, 
that they are the nerves affected. I have seen many cases in which 
the constrictors of the oesophagus have never acted at all, and 
fluid has been poured down the throat precisely as down a funnel. 
Next in order stands. Healthy uterus. I have purposely said 
healthy uterus, because by far the greater number of those 
which 1 have examined, that have died of puerperal fever, have 
been healthy ; and, though I have found a few that have not been 
quite so, yet I am convinced that this had little or no connexion 
with the specific disease in question. 
Having thus noticed the different symptoms, &c. as I pro- 
posed, and traced them as, I believe, to their real source, I will 
proceed to inquire into other circumstances, connected with the 
probability or improbability of the theory I have advanced. In 
the first place, then, this disease follows one of the most painful 
states to which animal nature is subjected, viz. the expulsion of 
the fqgtus : and here I must borrow a powerful argument from 
the facts which occur at this most important time in support of 
the overwhelming influence which the organic motor nerves 
possess over the voluntary ones; for, paradoxical as it may 
appear, yet, in the act of expelling the foetus, the voluntary 
nerves are obliged (despite the will) to come to the aid of the 
organic ones; thus proving, beyond a doubt, that the organic 
ones possess a paramount and a necessary superiority in the 
economy of animal life. If, then, it is a fact that the voluntary 
are obliged to succumb to the organic in excess of nervous 
stimuli, is it not fair to infer that they will do this in extreme 
deficiency of the same influence ? There is, throughout the 
whole frame, such a beautiful union and interchanging of fibre 
between the different classes of nerves, that it appears evident 
