260 
LUCrDUS ORDO. 
Nor does the theory first announced by Lever (in relation t 
puerperal eclampsia in women) account either for the phenomen 
of this disease in the human being or in the cow. The evidenc 
is as strong against this hypothesis as in its favor. Statistic 
show that a very little more than 50 per cent, of the human be 
inerg affected with albuminuria during pregnancy become the vk 
tims of parturient eclampsia. The relation then between th 
eclampsia and the albuminuria, to say the least, is very uncertau 
and the phenomena of albuminous urine are absent in perlm] 
most cases of eclampsia. We can find in the hydrasmic cond 
tion of the blood of the pregnant state a predisposing factor t 
eclampsia, but unless this is very intense it is not in itself sufficiei 
to provoke the disease. The theory of Traube and Rosenstci 
accounts for the phenomena of parturient apoplexy in this way 
and it has the support of much experimental investigation. M 
Donald advances the theory that the phenomena of parturiei 
eclampsia arise from cerebro-spinal anaemia induced by imtatic 
of the vaso-motor center from the retention of excrementitiw 
matter in the blood. This theory, like the former one, has muc 
to commend it, but it also fails to explain everything. I appr 
hend that to comprehend fully the physiological and patholog 
cal processes which are involved in the production of the disea 
we must disentangle the subject from the many perplexing e 
ments which have been forced into it, and perhaps we may do 
o-ood service in declaring that the old notion regarding conge 
tion of the brain being the essential underlying factor m t 
causation of the malady has been exploded in the more rece 
revelations of science. The keynote to puerperal apoplexy 
the cow, as in the human subject, is found in the peculiar exci 
bility of the nervous system of preghancy. Puerperal apop e. 
is a bad name. It too readily conveys the conception of cong 
tion or actual effusion or real hemorrhage, pathological sta 
which are not associated with the puerperal eclamptic conditi 
except in very rare cases. How do we account for the coi 
which characterizes typhus and typhoid? Not upon any theory 
congestion. What was the simple apoplexy of earlier write 
and why did they denominate it simple or nervous apoplexy < 
