494 
W. L. WILLIAMS* 
Franck and others could not count a cow’s pulse. What Dr. 
Butler did not see does not overthrow what others saw; his 
negative does not overthrow their positive. 
Dr. Butler attempts to show that there is a wide disparity 
in age between women subject to eclampsia and cows subject 
to apoplexy, but quotes authorities to show that eclampsia in 
woman occurs most often between twenty and thirty years, 
while in cows it is generally admitted to occur most often be¬ 
tween the fifth and tenth vears—surely quite analogous ages. 
He further draws attention to the fact that eclampsia occurs 
most often in primiparous women, parturient apoplexy never 
in primiparous cows, and scouts the idea that all cows become 
pregnant before maturity, and insists that it is the primiparous 
condition of women, not maturity, that predisposes, and says, 
“few will be so bold as to assert that all cows become preg¬ 
nant before maturity.” Very true, but we never knew one 
to become pregnant for the first time after maturity, as the 
butcher usually interfered, and if Dr. Butler will count the 
cases of primiparous adult cows within his observation we will 
venture to assert they will not reach high figures. Besides, 
the disease occurs in cows as young as three years, at which 
age they have rarely given birth to more than a second calf, 
in Dr. Butler’s effort to draw a distinction between the highly 
developed milking powers of the cow predisposed to apo¬ 
plexy and the lack of any mention of such development by 
writers on human medicine in women subject to eclampsia it 
would be well to bear in mind that the state of milk secretion 
is rarely spoken of by pathologists except in animals used for 
dairy purposes, unless it be in connection with diseases of the 
mammary glands; and besides, the duration of eclampsia in 
women is rarely sufficient to permit of accurate observa¬ 
tions. 
Dr. Butler’s quotations * from Carpentier and Lusk, in¬ 
tended to show that difficult labor causes eclampsia in woman, 
appear to indicate rather that the disease is a complication 
rather than a result of the labor, and other excellent writers 
* Am. Yet. Review, Yol. XV., p 2u0. 
