20 PREVENTION OF PARTURIENT APOPLEXY. 
Alderneys and shorthorns are very liable to this disease, 
especially in certain localities, and in no case where this plan 
has been fairly carried out have I known true parturient 
apoplexy to follow, even among them. In one instance the 
result was so marked that I think it worthy of record. A 
well-bred shorthorn cow, the property of a farmer in this 
neighbourhood, was reported to have “ dropped” (the local 
name for the disease), and on my visiting her I found the 
case to be one of true parturient apoplexy. Fortunately the 
usual means of treating the malady proved successful, and I 
afterwards advised the owner not to calve her again, but, 
being a good milker and a great favourite, he preferred 
running the risk, and wished me to adopt preventive 
measures. I therefore adopted the before-mentioned 
treatment, and with perfectly satisfactory results. 
The following year, the owner seeing she was not in a 
high condition when due to calve, did not think it necessary 
to be at any trouble with her, but to his great surprise she 
again “ dropped.” On attending her this time I found her 
far worse than before, and feared the case would prove fatal; 
she had lost all power of deglutition, and was quite coma¬ 
tose, blind, and deaf. All medicine was given by the sto¬ 
mach-pump—a point which I attach much importance to, 
especially in extreme cases. My endeavours were again 
crowned with success. After her recovery she was again 
milked in a reasonable time, and ultimately fattened. 
The only objection to these preventive measures that I 
have observed are that occasionally parturition is hastened, 
and sometimes the quantity of milk also for the first few days 
is lessened. 
[We hope this subject will be taken up by several of our 
correspondents. Its importance demands that right con¬ 
clusions should be arrived at, which can only be through the 
united experience of many veterinary surgeons engaged in 
cattle practice. At present we withhold our own, merely 
observing that for many years in succession, and in localities 
in which parturient apoplexy was exceedingly prevalent, 
preventives of the kind alluded to, including all others 
which our knowledge of the malady could devise, were had 
recourse to, but undoubtedly with less favorable results than 
we could desire.— Eds.] 
