DROPPING AFTER CALVING. 
577 
influence over the nervous system, or indirectly upon it 
through the quality of the blood; this in turn depending 
upon the amount of fatty matter the circulating fluid contains, 
or, in other words, on the quantity of colostrum which is 
secreted immediately before or after parturition. It is not 
difficult to understand how, under such circumstances, the 
blood and the nervous system can act and react abnormally 
on each other. 
So closely attendant on parturition is an attack of the 
disease, that in a few instances the cow has fallen even before 
the birth of the calf had been completed. Parturient apo¬ 
plexy, however, as a rule, occurs shortly after calving, and 
may happen at any time, as before stated, between the birth 
of the calf and the close of the fourth day. Why the liability 
should cease so soon is not easy to determine. It may 
possibly, as has been hinted at, depend on the excitability of 
the nervous system being now removed by the mammary 
glands having eliminated with the lacteal secretion a large 
proportion of the fatty matter of the blood in the cells of 
colostrum. In support of this view is the well-known fact 
that by this time the milk has to a great extent lost the 
characters of a colostric secretion. 
Doubtless this theory of the pathology of the disease is 
open to objection, and so, as it appears to me, is that which 
fixes primarily the disordered nerve force on the ganglionic 
nerves of the uterus. It has been supposed that some marked 
but undefined impress is made on these nerves by parturition, 
which is quickly conveyed to the cerebro-spinal and cerebral 
systems. If this be so, it is not difficult to account for the 
congested state of the vessels of the spinal cord and the brain, 
of which apoplexy essentially consists. The remarkable 
suddenness of the attack may also be said to favour the view 
of the nervous system being primarily and directly impressed. 
Thus a cow, in all respects in perfect health and exercising 
her natural maternal interest towards her calf, will be 
observed to suddenly stagger, fall, and soon to pass into coma¬ 
tose condition, which ends too often in speedy death. 
Indications and Progress of the Attack. —Apart 
from the very exceptional cases alluded to in which the attack 
takes place even before parturition, I may here repeat that 
immediately after her delivery the cow is likely to be affected. 
The earlier the attack the more serious does the case become 
as a rule. 
In some instances premonitory symptoms are to be 
observed, but not in the majority of cases. Indeed it will 
be found that not only has the cow calved without difficulty, 
