ECLAMPSIA-PARTURIENT APOPLEXY. 
197 
of a more or less diagnostic character—the head, being 
brought back to the left side, lies against the shoulder. Peri¬ 
ods of sopor or coma are usually alternated with those of 
delirium. During these latter the eyes look wild and star, 
ing, the lids twitch and tears flow over the face. Violent 
delirium may occur at short intervals, but usually the coma 
rapidly increases, to be broken only at long intervals, or at 
death, by delirious movements. 
It will be observed that the most striking point in this 
class of symptoms of the two diseases is the great promi¬ 
nence of convulsions in women and of coma in cows. This 
difference is sought to be explained by a fancied higher de¬ 
velopment of the nervous system of the former. Numerous 
observations of the phenomena exhibited during all stages of 
parturient apoplexy have never revealed a single genuine 
convulsion, except perhaps the throes of death might be so 
considered. Moreover, we have never talked with a veteri¬ 
narian on this point that a little careful questioning did not 
prove his so-called convulsions in parturient apoplexy to be 
none other than stages of delirium. The marked difference 
between delirium and convulsions is usually overlooked by 
veterinarians, but I do not deny the possibility of their oc¬ 
currence in parturient apoplexy. I merely state that I have 
never seen them, nor have I had satisfactory evidence of 
others having seen them. Lack of nervous development 
certainly does not explain their rarity or absence, for we 
have seen as many as thirty-seven genuine convulsions in a cozv, 
due to gastric irritation produced by eating too freely of 
“ hotel slops not delirium, but genuine convulsions, occur¬ 
ring at intervals of from two to thirty minutes, and lasting 
from thirty to ninety seconds. 
Thus far in our examination of the subject there has been 
an apparent, if not real, similarity between the two diseases, 
but no more than exists between other two entirely distinct 
diseases occurring in either class of subjects. Moreover, 
with this the resemblance ceases, and a consideration of the 
clinical history and the symptoms revealed by a physical ex¬ 
amination indicates such a difference in phenomena that it is 
