376 REMARKS ON THE STETHESCOPE, 
the reason why cows do not generally have puerperal fever super- 
vening upon slipping the calf, and why, in this particular case, 
the animal did have it. The difference simply was, the alteration 
in structure, occasioning additional pressure upon a part already 
affected. I think I could pursue a satisfactory train of reasoning 
to connect every established circumstance attendant upon puer- 
peral fever with previous chronic disease, or alteration of structure 
wholly producing or adding to disease already existing directly in 
the spinal columns, or communicated through the medium of nerves 
injured during the time of parturition, and occasioning the para- 
lysis confessedly the predominant symptom in the disease ; but, 
perhaps, it is needless to pursue the subject further, except to 
answer a query of Mr. King’s. Alluding to one of his own cases, 
he says, How is the sudden disappearance of the complaint, and 
almost complete restoration of healthy action, to be accounted for, 
as in case II 7 I answer, From the well-directed efforts of the 
veterinarian, aided by a wise and beautiful law of nature, which 
ordains that her earliest and utmost efforts should be directed to 
restore and harmonize that structural derangement necessarily 
attendant upon parturition. Mr. King had assisted to get rid of 
the artificial burden (the contents of the stomach), he had stimu- 
lated and assisted the nerves, and Nature performed the rest. On 
no other principle than a restoration of nervous energy from a 
state of paralysis could it possibly be accounted for. 
I conclude by offering to your attention the name with which 
I have headed this article, as one which better combines the true 
nature of the disease with the particular circumstances under 
which it occurs, than the old term, puerperal fever. 
REMARKS ON THE STETHESCOPE, AND ON BACK- 
RAKING. 
By William Mogford, Esq., Guernsey. 
Dear Sir, — I n looking over a few numbers of your valuable 
miscellany for the last year, several cases therein specified, as well 
as the different opinions to which they have given rise, have again 
attracted my attention, and induced more matured reflection than 
they did at the time of their publication. The more so, as in the 
course of my practice, facts have since come under my observa- 
tion, calculated, I think, to justify and confirm the views I had 
previously formed on some of the points in question. 
