012 
FUERPERAL FEVER. 
the brain ; that, in his opinion, whatever hurts the functions of 
the one will disturb those of the other. This is not a supposition 
of mine, because in his paper for March (see Veterinarian, 
page 141) Mr. Friend says, “ considering the nerves as part and 
parcel of the brain , as streams from the fountain, fyc. tyc.” — I 
never before heard of the nerves being “ part and parcel of the 
brain,” or that diseases of the one were inseparably connected 
or identified with those of the other ; and I beg to state plainly, 
clearly, and unequivocally, that the nerves no more spring from 
the brain than the brain is formed by the union of the nerves. 
This, of the nerves arising from the brain, is a very common but 
a very erroneous opinion, and it ought to be discarded by all who 
rejoice in the “ march of intellect;” by all who are glad to see 
the progress and improvements which the sciences are making. 
But it is quite clear that the nerves do not spring from the 
brain; and it is equally true, that disease may disturb and 
derange the functions of the brain, without impairing the use- 
fulness or the vigour of the nervous system, and vice versa. 
Has Mr. Friend never heard of a case where a part of the brain 
was considerably, nay materially destroyed, but where the 
nervous system was never interfered with ? or has he never 
heard of the case of a child that was born without a brain , but 
still there was life in the child, and it existed for about seven 
hours after birth ? In this case, and in many others which I 
might mention, the “ fountain ” was taken away, but still, though 
curiously enough , the “ streams ” continued to flow ! ! ! ! ! If this 
was the “ light that broke in upon Mr. Friend like a flood,” it 
must have been a dazzling new light, an ignis fatuus that led 
him terribly astray ; a light, I hope, that will remain in the 
southern hemisphere, as we northerns may sometimes go wrong 
without its misdirecting influence. The classification of “ in- 
variable living symptoms” in puerperal fever which Mr. Friend 
has given is not correct in many respects, because paralysis of 
the hind extremities (if paralysis it may be called) is not an 
invariable living symptom. In the foregoing four cases, only 
th q first and the last were unable to get up ; not from paralysis, 
however, but from great debility, where the fever was exceed- 
ingly high, and nature seemed to be almost worn out from 
complete general exhaustion. But who will say that in such a 
case the cow was paralysed ? I, for one, never will. But real 
paralysis is a very different disease, with different symptoms, and 
requiring different treatment : this, however, is digressing from 
my subject. 
Here, then, out of four cases only two were unable to stand, 
the other two getting up with some assistance at the very worst 
