62 
PARTURIENT APOPLEXY. 
The experiments of Goetz demonstrated that violent impact 
against the belly of a frog produced sudden anaemia of the brain, 
and determination of the volume of blood to the abdominal 
cavity. The same observation can be made by any veterinarian. 
The influence of irritation in exciting spasm of small vessels by 
excitation of the vaso-motor centres which enervate their walls, 
finds a happy illustration in the symmetrical gangrene of M. 
Maurice Beynaud. The initial irritation may be anywhere remote 
from the affected parts, but the excitation will be transmitted to 
the bulb, and thence reflected to the extremities. 
To-day the question of anaemia as the basic element in par¬ 
turient apoplexy is only beginning to attract the attention of vet¬ 
erinarians. The more rigidly the matter is looked into, the 
stronger will grow the conviction that the old theories regarding 
cerebral congestion are not adequate to a rational exposition of 
the disorder under consideration. A glance at the mortality rate 
of parturient apoplexy is sufficient to convince even a novice that 
our means of controlling the disease either are impotent or that 
we are in ignorance regarding the pathological condition that we* 
wish to combat. 
According to Franck, Saint Cyr and Stockfleth, the mortality 
rate ranges from forty per cent, to fifty per cent. Such a death 
rate is proof that we have not learned yet how to treat the dis¬ 
ease successfully. But it will be found that where plans of treat¬ 
ment are instituted upon the theory of a brain anaemia as the 
underlying causal factor, this rate is materially lessened. The 
indications for treatment are two-fold. The great central nerve 
organ—the brain—must be furnished with a sufficiency of blood 
by proper treatment, and the local irritation in and about the 
generative organs must be allayed. For the purposes of success¬ 
ful management, this latter indication possesses equal importance 
with the first. The therapeutics of this disease, as outlined in 
text-books, is mainly a marshalling of therapeutic illusions, and 
the practitioner who “ treats by the book ” will reap bitter fruit 
for his labor. 
