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ON PUERPERAL FEVER. 
The malady is by some considered to be solely dependent upon 
a diseased state of a particular portion of the nervous system, 
with which opinion I cannot entirely concur, having so often 
found that inflammation or congestion of not one single but 
several organs will invariably be found upon dissection ; while, 
sometimes, not the slightest speck can be discovered which 
might lead us to conclude or impress us with the conviction that 
its seat was in the nervous system, unless we are disposed to 
admit that in all cases of disease the nervous systems are pri- 
marily affected, or, in other words, that all inflammatory affections, 
&c. commence there. 
One thing I am prepared to admit, and have not the slightest 
doubt but time and a further development of science will confirm 
it, that in all diseases, more especially of cows, the brain and ner- 
vous systems are more seriously involved than the practitioner of 
the present day could give credence to ; but this it is impossible 
for the present state of veterinary physiology and pathology to 
demonstrate and confirm. For my own part, I look upon the dis- 
ease in question as one of an inflammatory character, not con- 
fined to any particular organ, but affecting all the viscera ; and in 
some cases I have seen the brain itself partake of the inflamma- 
tion, and the animal in as furious a state as when phrenitis was 
the primary disease. 
The inability to rise, so palpably evident in this disease, cannot 
by any one who has seen much of it be confounded with paralysis, 
the effect produced essentially differing from that affection ; while 
the suddenness of the attack in the latter, compared with the 
gradual approach of the former, is in my opinion an insuperable 
bar to its being classed under the head of paralysis. 
There is one other fact which all or most of us have witnessed ; — • 
in how many cases have we seen the animal restored to the per- 
fect use of its posterior extremities the moment the bowels have 
been freely acted upon? I reply, in nine out of ten, and that in 
general I have had to date my patient’s convalescence from that 
period. These facts coupled together, and opposed to the sud- 
den and too often lasting attack of paralysis, preclude my sub- 
scribing to the common opinion. 
When we take into consideration the real nature of a deep 
milked cow, and that she is daily in the habit of yielding us a 
large supply of nutriment until within, in many instances, a very 
short period of calving, and that during the time she is dry — as 
it is termed — plethora must and will in many cases ensue, the 
foetus not being able to consume the extra quantity of nutriment 
produced from the cessation of the milk, and, perhaps, an 
extra quantity of nutritious food, we need not be surprised at 
