18 
W. F. DERR. 
mary gland eliminates it. When these glands act promptly, the 
febrile movement is imperceptible or almost nil , but if they are 
slow in secreting, there arises a more or less morbid disturbance, 
due more especially to the presence in the blood of a product 
foreign to its normal composition. 
Causes. 
Plethora : Animals that receive no exercise, sudden changes 
of diet, and stabling just before parturition, costiveness, eating 
the foetal membrane, removing the calf from its mother, are said 
to be the causes. The development of lactation has a powerful 
influence. 
When the powers of secretion have reached a certain point* 
the cow becomes predisposed to an attack. I have never seen a 
case in the primapara, and I cannot remember of seeing one before 
the third calf. In twenty-nine cases reported by the Haycock, 
three occurred after the third calf, five after the fourth, sixteen 
after the eighth. Temperature is supposed to influence the pro¬ 
duction of the disease, especially exposure to cold. The suppres¬ 
sion of the cutaneous functions and the determination of blood 
from the surface of the body to the internal organs must favor 
congestion of these organs. Such as currents of cold air, lying 
on the ground, and drinking large quantities of cold fluids im¬ 
mediately after parturition, have been looked on as causes. Let 
the causes be what they may, I think the more rapidly the womb 
contracts and attains its normal size, the more danger of parturi¬ 
ent apoplexy, and the longer it remains relaxed the animal is less 
liable to take the disease. 
It attacks principally cows that are fat and rich milkers, and 
if there is one breed more susceptible to the disease than another, 
it seems to be the Alderney. 
In all cases there seems to be an easy delivery, little loss of 
blood or nervous expenditure, and I think it is more noticed in 
the warm than in the cold seasons of the year. A cow having 
one attack is very liable to have another at the next time of 
calving. 
It usually occurs at the third and later periods of parturition, 
seldom before, and it is said to never follow difficult or protracted 
