PARTURIENT ECLAMPSIA IN THE MARE. 
569 
have been able to collect occurred after parturition ; but it is 
equally true of the convulsive affections dependent on partu¬ 
rition in the other lower animals. The parturient apoplexy ot 
the cow, and the parturient eclampsia of the cow, bitch, goat 
and sow, as described by Fleming and other writers, occur 
almost, if not wholly, after parturition. 
Fleming, in his “Text Book of Veterinary Obstetrics,” 
disagrees with Franck, who, in his “ Geburtschilfe,” attempts 
to establish the identity of the parturient convulsions of 
woman with parturient apoplexy of the cow ; and while the 
former is forced to admit that Franck occupies a somewhat 
tenable position, he remarks that “ the eclampsia (of woman) 
is essentially epileptic or convulsive, the convulsions being of 
a tonic and clonic nature ; and though, in the disease of the 
cow, convulsions are sometimes present, yet they are far from 
being a constant symptom.” Fleming differs widely here 
from my personal observations with parturient apoplexy of 
cows, for while admitting coma as the most impressive phe¬ 
nomenon, 1 have rarely seen cases in which, at some stage, 
well defined convulsions were not present, and in the earlier 
stages we have quite uniformly found strong resemblance be¬ 
tween the symptoms of apoplexy in the cow and those which 
are said to occur in the puerperal convulsions of woman. 
After opposing as strongly as possible the ideas of Franck 
as to the identity of these two affections, Fleming remarks: 
* “ But if we cannot at present admit that this bovine dis¬ 
order (parturient apoplexy) and eclampsia of woman are the 
same, there is a malady which attacks not only the cow, but 
also the goat, bitch and sow, and which certainly closely re- 
sembles the human disease.” 
Under this head, then, of parturient eclampsia, Fleming 
proceeds to describe a convulsive parturient affection of the 
goat, bitch and sow, which certainly closely resembles in his¬ 
tory, semiology, course and termination, the disease of 
woman, and along with them he describes a convulsive affec¬ 
tion of cows equally resembling the human affection. This 
eclampsia of cows it has been my fortune to observe several 
times, and some of my cases, after a few hours, developed 
