PARTURIENT APOPLEXY. 
159 
system supplying that apparatus is also more highly developed, 
but that the whole sympathetic nervous system is more highly 
developed in consequence of this increased development of a 
certain portion of the system is most assuredly an illogical infer¬ 
ence. Williams is not only wrong in his premises but also in his 
reasoning, for if it be granted that the whole sympathetic 
nervous system is more highly developed it does not follow that 
it is “ more susceptible and more prone to derangement from 
trivial causes.” 
An increased functional activity without a corresponding in¬ 
crease of development would, most certainly, render an organism 
more liable to derangement from trivial causes; but an increased 
functional activity, provided it be accompanied by a correspond¬ 
ing increased development, does not, by any means, render an or¬ 
gan “more susceptible and more prone to derangement from 
trivial causes.’” Well bred cattle are, as a rule, of a more nervous 
temperament, but that is independent of any increased develop¬ 
ment of the lactiferous apparatus. 
It is also stated that whereas parturient apoplexy follows an 
easy delivery the amount of nerve force provided by nature for 
the accomplishment of the act of parturition is not expended and 
that the surplus of nerve force thus remaining, by some means, 
deranges the sympathetic system of nerves and thereby produces 
the disease. 
The ridiculosity of such an explanation is too apparent to ren¬ 
der it worthy of serious consideration. 
That the functions of the sympathetic nervous system are de¬ 
ranged in parturient apoplexy appears quite evident, but that that 
derangement is brought about by an increased development of 
the system, or by a surplus amount of nerve force is, to say the 
least, decidedly improbable. 
The theory of Dr. J. H. Cox, that parturient apoplexy is due 
to thrombi being formed in the cotyledons of the uterus, and that 
the phenomena of the disease are due to embolism and its 
effects is as inconsistent with facts as it is ingenious, for 
:hrombi formed in the uterus, if they enter the circulation at all, 
Rust of necessity enter it by the uterine veins and in such a case 
