152 
INCOGNITUS. 
merits or demerits in human medicine, and leave until farther on 
the discussion of the question whether “one cause must produce 
the phenomena in man and animals.” 
The Traube-Rosenberg theoiy is founded on the fact that 
there is intercranial haemal obstruction, the result of an altered 
condition of the circulation, produced by increased aortic pres¬ 
sure and the supposition that the resulting cerebral hypersemia 
is always succeeded by oedema and anaemia. Many cases of 
active cerebral hypersemia are not followed by oedema and 
anaemia; therefore to ascertain whether such be the case in par¬ 
turient apoplexy in cows, the student must rely almost entirely 
on the clinical history and pathological anatomy. Inasmuch as 
Brown-Sequard has shown that epileptic convulsions are pre¬ 
ceded by anaemia of the nerve centres, and Kussmaul and Tenner 
have proved, by numerous experiments, the dependence of con¬ 
vulsions on cerebral anaemia, is it not more than probable that if 
cerebral anaemia were the cause of parturient apoplexy in cows, 
convulsions would, at least, be a common, if not a constant, 
symptom of the disease ? But it is a notorious fact that convul¬ 
sions are rarely or never present; in fact we have never seen a 
xjase where genuine convulsions occurred, except during the last 
throes of death ; but neither have we seen a case where spasms 
and deliriums were not present during the early stages of the 
disease. In judging of the occurrence of convulsions it is essen¬ 
tial that they be carefully distinguished from deliriums and 
spasms, and consequently in default of that distinction certain 
writers mention convulsions as a symptom of the disease, while 
others remain perfectly silent respecting this point, leaving us to 
infer that they have never seen what they consider genuine con¬ 
vulsions. It is an incontrovertible fact that cerebral anaemia pro¬ 
duces symptoms resembling to a degree those of parturient apo¬ 
plexy, but it nevertheless appears that the paralysis and the pro¬ 
found and prolonged coma of that disease resemble more closely 
the phenomena resulting from active cerebral hypersemia. Fleming 
says the “ anatomical arrangement of the ‘ rete mirable ’ is such 
that it chiefly supplies the cerebrum ; this should tend to explain 
why in eclampsia in the cow, the comatose symptoms are so com- 
