PUERPERAL FEVER IN A. COW. 
By W. Cox, M.R.C.V.S., Ashbourn. 
Sir,—I n June, 1848,1 was sent for to attend a cow, the property 
of Mr. Beard, of Kniveton, near this place, and I found, when I saw 
her, every symptom of that malady which has generally been called 
milk or puerperal fever. 
The animal was completely paralysed; I never saw one more so 
in this disorder. She was unable to lift up her head; and when 
raised, the lower jaw hung pendant, as though she was dead. The 
power of deglutition was lost—her eyes were amaurotic, and when 
the conjunctiva was touched she would not close the eyelids—the 
pulse was slow but oppressed—the respiration slow but regular— 
and there was that peculiar moan which is always heard in this 
complaint. I need not say that these are the symptoms of puer¬ 
peral fever in its latter stage, and that the secretions were all 
stopped. But the secret has still to come out: this cow had not 
calved. 
I learned from Mr. Beard that symptoms of calving had first 
appeared about twelve hours previous, and that these continued for 
about two hours. As soon as she lay down all her throes ceased, 
and she was never able to rise afterwards. 
I found the cow fully prepared for calving, and the foetus in the 
passage. Ropes were attached to the foetus, and it was dragged 
away without producing one pain or throe. The cow lay all the 
time as though she was dead. She survived fourteen hours after 
parturition. 
Case II.—During my residence at Leek, I met with one case 
where the symptoms of puerperal fever were fully developed before 
calving. The cow belonged to Mr. Poninton, Leek. Extracting 
the calf in this case also produced no pains or throes. She like¬ 
wise died. 
This disease is evidently of an apoplectic character. Plethora 
is considered by most practitioners to be the predisposing cause, 
and the shock upon the nervous system caused by the act of partu¬ 
rition to be the exciting one. 
From these two cases we may infer (and I have seen others), 
that the act of parturition itself is not the exciting cause, although 
I have never seen this disease at any other time. 
Why this disease should attack cows alone, and not others of 
our domesticated animals, even those that are analogous in struc¬ 
ture, I am at a loss to know, there being not one well-authenticated 
