PARTURIENT APOPLEXY. 
153 
mon that convulsions seem exceptional ”; while Dr. Billings says 
“ the reason that convulsions are not so frequent or severe in 
cows, assuming the cause to be the same, is surely not to be 
sought as much in any peculiarities of the circulation, as in the 
y very low degree of nervous irritability which is common to the 
bovine species.” 
Fleming founds his explanation on the belief that anaemia of 
the cerebrum is less likely to produce convulsions than anaemia of 
the medulla, and the erroneous conclusion that the “ rete mira- 
ble ” by its “ anatomical arrangement ” renders cerebral hyper- 
aernia more likely to be followed by oedema and anaemia, whereas 
the fact is that this peculiar distribution of the vessels renders 
active cerebral hyperaemia less likely to be followed by oedema 
and anaemia; for effusion is more likely to take place where the 
maximum weight of blood pressure is quickly reached and the 
vessels rapidly distended to their utmost capacity. “ The very 
low degree of nervous irritability which is common to the bovine 
species ” would, to a certain extent, render convulsions less fre- 
quent and violent; but, assuming the cause to be the same,” it 
does not account for their entire absence, especially when it is re¬ 
membered that, under other conditions, convulsions of a most 
severe type occur in cattle. 
The reason why convulsions are seldom or never seen in 
parturient apoplexy in cows is to be sought more particularly in 
the etiology of the disease than in any peculiarity of anatomical 
arrangement or lack of nervous irritability in the animal. 
A necropsy, having for its object the examination of the 
contents of the cranial cavity, should be conducted with the 
utmost precaution, for merely post-mortem meningeal hyperaemia 
or anaemia is no index of ante-mortem cerebral hyperaemia or 
anaemia, inasmuch as the condition of the meningeal vessels de¬ 
pends to a great extent “ upon the position of the body after 
death, the length of time during which the blood remains fluid, 
the manner of dying, and whether the head or trunk is opened 
first at the post-mortem examination.” (Flint.) 
In view of the great importance of a correct knowledge of 
the pathological anatomy, it is a much-to-be-regretted fact that 
