10 
ON PUERPERAL FEVER. 
to much consideration — yet how is the sudden disappearance of the 
complaint, and almost complete restoration of healthy action, to be 
accounted for, as in Case II 1 
I never knew a case requiring manual assistance attacked by 
“ dropping,” however much the uterus and parts connected may 
suffer by the necessary interference ; but I am speaking of my 
own experience, and do not deny its occurrence in the practice of 
other veterinarians. 
Inflammation of any part, I conceive, could not have proved fatal 
in so short a time as in Case III ; and it seems a fact, that cases 
recover as speedily without bleeding as with it. 
I do not observe that the French veterinarians say much about 
the complaint : do they not meet with it 1 
Perhaps you will say, “ Well! you have not given us any clue 
as to cause and effect in this malady.” I have before said that I 
cannot : but I shall be most happy to give my meed of applause to 
any one who may accomplish so great a desideratum. 
[We confess that we have sometimes thought that our continental 
neighbours have been almost as much at a loss with regard to 
our friend’s “ cause and effect ” in this disease as we have been. 
They sometimes speak of a certain “ weakness of the loins ” 
following parturition ; and not produced by protracted and painful 
labour, or by any manual operation, but occurring from some un- 
explained cause, and in consequence of which the cows remain 
down, and without the power of rising one or two or more days, 
often eating and drinking just as usual. At other times they speak 
more plainly of compression or inflammation of the crural plexus 
of nerves, and this connected with or dependent upon inflammation 
of the womb, and that arising from improper general treatment, 
or the administration of stimulants, or exposure to cold: but 
there is not a sufficient distinction of symptoms to enable us to 
trace with any degree of certainty the “ effect” to its true “cause.” 
Some cases are designated as metritis, in which the animal 
after awhile gets up again almost as well as ever; and others are 
said to die of metritis, and yet there is scarcely any inflammatory 
appearance to be detected in the uterus. There is a great deal 
yet to be learned on both sides of the channel respecting this too 
frequent and fatal malady. To Mr. Friend we owe much, and 
to him we shall, perhaps, be ultimately indebted for removing 
those difficulties with which it caimot be denied the subject is 
still attended. — Y.] 
