PUERPERAL FEVER IN A MARE. 
289 
I found her in a state of profuse perspiration — the conjunctival and 
nasal membranes highly injected — heaving considerably at the 
flanks — and the ears and extremities cold, with a peculiar catching 
up of the hind legs, and staggering gait. The pulse was full and 
oppressed, so much so, that I anticipated a case of pneumonia : but 
I could not assign any satisfactory cause for the peculiar spasmodic 
action in the posterior extremities. On placing myself behind her, 
and causing an assistant to move her forward, she exhibited every 
appearance of a horse with stringhalt. 
I abstracted about eight pounds of blood, and gave her a ball 
composed of three drachms of Cape aloes, with a drachm each of 
digitalis and emetic tartar, and two drachms of nitre. Almost im- 
mediately after she had taken the ball, she staggered and fell. Her 
pulse was softer, and the extremities indicated returning warmth. 
The legs were well rubbed and bandaged, and a mustard cataplasm 
applied over the loins. She was well clothed and bedded up. 
2 5th . — She is still down, and totally unable to rise. I now, for 
the first time, considered it to be a case of puerperal fever, as in 
cows. She had voided a small quantity of water, and the little 
dung which came from her was pultaceous. The cataplasm had 
taken effect, and the mare seemed in every other respect to be 
better, except that she had no power over her hind limbs. I 
ordered her to be still kept warmly clothed, and, as she had not 
been fairly purged, gave her, in warm gruel, half an ounce of 
Barbadoes aloes, a drachm of digitalis, and half an ounce of spirit 
of nitrous ether. 
In the evening she was well purged, and, after an effort or two, 
she got up and began to eat. Her recovery was rapid. In the 
course of a few days she was put to light work, and has enjoyed 
uninterrupted health ever since. 
[Cases of palsy after parturition, although not frequent, and cer- 
tainly not one of them appearing in the records of British veteri- 
nary science, are occasionally met with, and especially in country 
practice. They mostly follow difficult parturition, and then, per- 
haps, are generally to be traced to the compression or inflamma- 
tion of the nerves which compose the crural plexus. This para- 
lytic affection is seldom absent when there is any considerable 
degree of inflammation of the womb, from whatever cause arising. 
A little laxative and carminative medicine, combined with warm 
clothing and a warm stable, seldom fail to give relief. 
The disordered motion of the hind legs resembling stringhalt 
deserves particular attention. In almost every severe paralytic 
affection the first thing observed is, the diminution of voluntary 
motion ; to this succeeds irregular and disordered movements of 
VOL. XII. Q q 
