V 
I 
PARTURIENT APOPLEXY. 639 
came back with my store of knowledge and stock of medicines 
exhausted ; my expectations not exactly realized ; my faith in 
text-book teachings diminished, and a realization of the fact 
that even our wise predecessors who could write great vol¬ 
umes of veterinary literature were capable of being mistaken. 
And now, while I have nothing to offer that 1 can give proof 
of being superior to the text-book instructions, I have dis¬ 
covered the necessity of dropping away from these theoretical 
chmg's to a certain degree and making some practical in¬ 
vestigations, and I hope from this paper, from the discussions 
which will follow, and from the united efforts of the profes¬ 
sion in making the investigations, that at no distant day, instead 
of each one of us having a little pet theory of our own, 
we may stand united, not only upon this, but all other subjects 
of such vital importance to the profession and general public ; 
that we may know what parturient apoplexy is, what causes it, 
and what line of treatment is best calculated to antagonize its 
fatal effects. 
In my experience with the disease l have been particularly 
impressed with the similarity of symptoms as manifested in 
parturient apoplexy and many cases of true gastric impaction, 
and, as you will discover, the purpose of my paper is to show 
that parturient apoplexy has its origin in gastric derangement. 
Just what there is within thesystem at time of parturition, 
just before or just after, to predispose the disease or aggravate 
certain symptoms as are usually most noticeable at that time, 
but often seen at other times during attacks of acute indiges¬ 
tion, I am not fully prepared to say, but I do believe that if 
the digestive system could be kept in perfect running order, 
there would be no such disease known as parturient apoplexy. 
Among the predisposing causes offered by different authors 
are “ Stimulating food allowed in great abundance,” “ Access 
to rich green pastures,” “ Plethoric condition of the body,” and 
Williams, in Principles and Practice of Veterinary Medicine, 
p. 329: “It should be remembered that prior to the act of 
parturition, deep milking cows which are dry or nearly so, 
rapidly become plethoric; hence in finding an animal of this 
kind great care should be taken that the food be not over 
abundant, too highly nitrogenous or too watery.” 
