402 
ON PUERPERAL FEVER IN COWS. 
a proof of this. Here was a decided case of death from defect 
of nervous energy, clearly traced to disease of the spinal columns, 
and, no doubt, involving the whole cerebral mass. A melan¬ 
choly but highly instructive lesson may be learnt from a case like 
this; and, with the due attention which ought to be paid to liv¬ 
ing symptoms and post-mortem appearances, it is scarcely pos¬ 
sible to mistake this for any other than simple disease of the 
nervous system. What are all the symptoms before death ? 
The effect,—loss of muscular power : the cause,—want of nervous 
energy, commencing, so far as observation is generally con¬ 
cerned, with shifting the feet, trembling and staggering when in 
motion; this soon followed by total loss of power in the extremi¬ 
ties to sustain the animal, and she falls;—the debility extends 
to the throat, the eyes, the muscles of respiration and degluti¬ 
tion, and, last of all, the heart participates in this want of power, 
and death is the immediate consequence. The post-mortem ap¬ 
pearances fully bear out this view of the case. The animal now 
under consideration (Case I, Veterinarius) was in veiy high con¬ 
dition, and yet there was no appearance of inflammation: every 
thing internally points to the same cause, the same effect. No 
power in the gall-bladder to expel its contents—no power in the 
stomachs to carry on the processes of rumination or digestion. 
It was not a breaking up of the muscular part of the constitution, 
like that produced by slow decay or rapid inflammatory action; 
it was simply a cessation of vitality from loss of power in those 
muscles whose healthy action constitutes life. There was, in 
fact, no disease whatever but of the nervous system. I cannot 
pass over these post-mortem details without throwing out a hint 
as to the necessity of much thought and extreme caution in 
conducting these examinations. In the subject before us many, 
without due consideration, would at once say. Here was a case of 
inflamed lungs. In the ordinary acceptation of the term there 
was no such thing : the congestion of blood in the lungs was from 
the same cause as the stoppage of food in the stomach—want of 
power in the muscles respectively concerned to carry forward 
their contents. It was the right side of the heart acting longer 
than the left. It has happened to me on more than one occasion 
to be told, after death, that I had mistaken the case; that the 
animal had died from inflamed lungs; and that there was no 
disease elsewhere. You would not call this same congestion in 
the lungs after hanging or drowning, inflamed lungs; neither 
is it so here: and though it is sometimes extremely difficult to 
make the owners of such animals understand the ?nodiis operandi 
of all this, yet I apprehend that it will be clear enough to the 
conception of every veterinary surgeon. 
