SCOTTISH METROPOLITAN VETERINARY ASSOCIATION. 875 
disease existing than in younger animals. The pressure of the 
abdominal muscles in the act of parturition against the diaphragm, 
through the agency of the abdominal organs, must necessarily 
compress the heart and lungs and interfere with circulation and 
respiration, and increase the tendency to cerebral congestion 
should any exist. Injudicious feeding, giving rise to indi¬ 
gestion, acts in the same way by increasing the liability to pressure 
on the semilunar ganglion and solar plexus. In human practice it 
is found that pressure on the semilunar ganglion, in the operation 
for aneurism of the abdominal aorta, causes quick, and ultimately 
indistinct and wavering pulse, and finally death, a train of symp¬ 
toms, so far as the circulation is concerned, exactly identical with 
those of purturient apoplexy. Pressure on the hypogastric or 
lumbar plexus of the foetus during parturition, or of the head of 
the calf upon the sacral portion of the sympathetic nerve in its 
passage through the pelvic cavity. Drastic purgation, although 
looked upon as a preventive, sometimes becomes an indirect cause, 
from reflex irritation and by lowering the vital powers. Exposure 
to cold draughts or cold rains immediately after parturition occa¬ 
sionally acts as a cause, though more likely to produce metritis. 
Bony projections or exostosis within the cranium, although of 
little consequence ordinarily, may, in conjunction with the act of 
parturition, be an exciting cause. In the cranium of a cow which 
had succumbed to the disease, kindly sent me by Mr. Borthwick, 
I found numbers of these small spiculse at the base of the brain. 
Violently, or if the system is at all below par, gently removing the 
placenta may produce reflex irritation, coma, and death. It has 
been my lot to have two such cases, both following previous in¬ 
flammation of the lungs, and in which, from debility, symptoms 
of eversion showing themselves, I determined upon removing the 
placenta and then applying the truss. Proceeding to remove the 
placenta very carefully, I had no sooner commenced than the 
throes became more violent, causing eversion of the uterus in 
spite of everything I could do to prevent it, and before I had 
returned it coma came on, and both cases ended fatally. 
Albuminuria is an invariable Accompaniment of puerperal 
convulsions in the human subject, and from hearing a discussion 
relative thereto at a meeting of the Obstetrical Society, it occurred 
to me that such might also be the case in cows, and I imme¬ 
diately asked many of my veterinary friends to examine the urine 
for me, but as yet I have only had one report on the subject, and 
that from Mr. Cartwright, of Whitchurch, in which he states he 
obtained a coagulum with sulphuric, nitric, and hydrochloric 
acids, and nitrate of silver. 
If this condition of the urine is ultimately found to exist we 
can easily understand that it would be a certain exciting cause. 
