PUERPERAL FEVER. 
6(X> 
I supposed that nothing new could be elicited from them; that 
no symptoms had made their appearance but what would easily 
be recognized as belonging, generally, to puerperal fever : but I 
could not have dreamed of a new cause producing this disease, 
or that a novel and strange doctrine would find so many advo- 
cates, who suppose that it is a disease of the “ brain,” or of the 
“ organic motor nerves .” Seeing, however, in some by-gone 
numbers of your Journal, that several of the London-taught 
veterinarians have advanced this new theory regarding the or- 
gans affected in puerperal fever — a theory which I cannot admit, 
because I cannot comprehend it — one that is too ravelled and 
abstruse for an ordinary intellect, and by far too sublime for the 
heavy, fagging wings of my imagination to reach — observing 
this, I could not resist the temptation of sending you three 
cases, and also the post-mortem appearances of a fourth ani- 
mal that died of puerperal fever, but which I had not an oppor- 
tunity of seeing alive. 
CASE I. 
June 12th, 1835. — A cow belonging to Mr. Pae, Broughton, 
had been suddenly taken ill. I was informed that she had been 
bought the day previous, in the Grass-market, from a Kelso 
dealer, who had travelled her from that place (rather hurriedly, 
as too often happens) a few days after calving. I learned from 
the proprietor that she had been exposed, on the day of sale, to 
some heavy showers of rain, and after being taken to the byre 
she gave a considerable quantity of milk, but refused to feed, 
and only drank a little gruel. 
Symptoms. — This morning she was milked, and gave about 
three quarts, after which she immediately dropped, and in that 
state I found her, without the least appearance of being able to 
stand, although attempts had been made to raise her. Pulse 
above 90, small, hard, irregular* ; breathing very laborious, 
horns, ears, and legs cold ; a wild, wandering look ; abdomen 
greatly distended, and moaning most piteously. 
Treatment. — I abstracted about eight quarts of blood, gave a 
pound of Epsom salts; back raked, gave some injections, and 
ordered her to be thoroughly rubbed over with a very coarse 
cloth. 
2 o’clock, p.m. — No alteration. I ordered a bottle of linseed oil, 
plenty of gruel, and frequent injections. 
8 p.m. — Symptoms much the same, no relief by the bowels ; 
give another bottle of linseed oil. 
* When I say “irregular,” I do not mean an intermittent pulse. 
