SCOTTISH METROPOLITAN VETERINARY ASSOCIATION. 871 
the same indications of pain by kicking and throwing the head 
back to the sides, although there is a marked difference in the 
violence with which the latter is accomplished; and the unwilling¬ 
ness to rise when down might easily lead to the conclusion that 
the animal was incapable of doing it, especially when coupled 
with the unsteady movements frequently evinced when in the 
upright position. One other disease, viz. “ cerebritis,” occurring 
as the result of exposure to the rays of the sun or other cause, 
may be also confounded with parturient apoplexy. We seldom, 
however (especially in the early stages) have the same accom¬ 
panying paralysis, the muscular power being increased instead of 
decreased. 
With regard to its resemblance to any parturient affection in 
the human subject it may be said that puerperal convulsions 
alone has any analogy to it. Although apoplexy does follow 
parturition in the human subject it can generally be traced to 
psychical, rather than to physiological causes, and often occurs at 
a considerable period after the act of parturition, from well-defined 
causes in connection with, or resulting from, that act. 
Some authorities have attempted to draw a distinction between 
paralysis and parturient apoplexy by stating that they differ with 
regard to their period of invasion, but this must necessarily be 
fallacious, inasmuch as we have both diseases making their 
appearance before, during, and after parturition; this you must 
all be able to prove by experience. 
Is it a blood disease ? I say decidedly no ; although with all 
due deference to those who believe it is, and who have laboured 
hard to establish that belief. I am quite aware that a diseased 
condition of the blood may act as an exciting or proximate cause, 
but in this case it is only a symptom of an already existing 
disease. That it is not a blood disease is proved by the fact that 
there are neither effusions, extravasations, nor exudations in the 
muscular or cellular tissues (except as the result of pressure and 
congestion), and one or other of these always occurs in true blood 
diseases. The blood is of a plastic character, but this is due to 
the peculiar condition of the nervous system, and to the increase 
of azotized principles in its structure, and we have a familiar 
example of sudden alteration in the normal condition of the blood 
by what is supposed only to affect the nervous system, viz. 
electricity, in lightning. 
Tew veterinary surgeons, I imagine, will now deny the nervous 
origin of parturient apoplexy. I know not who was the first to 
teach this doctrine, but I believe Professor Simonds is accredited 
with being the first to call attention fully to it. In this paper it 
will be my endeavour to show you to what extent, and how, the 
nervous system is affected in this disease. 
