86 REMARKS ON PARTURIENT APOPLEXY. 
disease, but content myself by saying that a somewhat 
lengthened experience has shown that the best preventive 
means have been to keep the cows on a moderate quantity 
of dry food for two or three months prior to calving. 
REMARKS ON PARTURIENT APOPLEXY. 
By Stephen Beeson, Sen., M.R.C.V.S., Chalfont, St. 
Peter's. 
As you kindly invite the attention of your readers and the 
profession generally to the subject of preventive treatment of 
parturient apoplexy, I willingly join in giving my expe¬ 
rience of the treatment which I have adopted for upwards 
of fourteen years. And I cannot do it in a better way than 
by relating that treatment in four cows belonging to T. W—, 
Esq. 
This gentleman lived in our neighbourhood twenty-eight 
years, and I had the management of the cows during the 
whole of the time. 
For the first fourteen years there were twenty-six calvings, 
and out of that number we had eleven cases of parturient 
apoplexy ; four died, and seven recovered. Of course I felt 
very much concerned about the animals, and always left the 
premises, when one died, very dissatisfied with myself. 
The thought struck me whether the withdrawal of blood 
before calving might not prove beneficial. Accordingly I 
mentioned it to the owner. His reply was, “ Do as you 
please.” 
The next cow that was due for calving I bled a few days 
before she calved, all went on well (of course I gave the 
usual medicines at such times). This induced me to con¬ 
tinue the same treatment, and for the space of fourteen 
years I have not lost one cow on this estate from dropping 
after calving, as it is commonly called. 
In the fourteen years we had forty-one calvings, and out 
of that number, four had slight symptoms of dropping; none 
of them died. Just to show how harmless the bleeding is 
to the cow, I find one was bled every time before calving for 
nine successive times, another eight times. In fact every 
cow w r as bled before calving after the second calf, the 
animals always being kept in a very plethoric state and 
giving a large quantity of milk. 
