PARTURIENT PARESIS. 
401 
days subsequent to birth or even later also fails to indicate as 
the cause a precipitous contraction of the uterus and the conse¬ 
quent interference with cerebral circulation, and brain-anaemia. 
After the foregoing considerations, it may well be doubted if 
during the development of calf-fever cerebral oedema exists. 
For the symptoms indicate on the contrary an absorption of 
fluids from the tissues and that the brain would form an excep¬ 
tion or rather a reverse condition and should become oedema- 
tous, while the tissues in other peripheral parts become anhy¬ 
drous, is improbable. Neither can this have its cause in the soft¬ 
ness of the cerebral tissue nor in the division of the arteries into 
an arterial plexus in ruminants, as Franck has sought to prove. 
The hypothesis of intoxication from decomposition of uter¬ 
ine secretions appears at first thought, on the contrary, to be 
more probable than the Franck theory. It must be granted 
that the womb presents favorable conditions for the develop¬ 
ment of toxic substances after birth. Nor can one interpose 
with certainty any objections to such poisoning as the cause, 
based upon the symptoms of parturient collapse. 
The toxaemia hypothesis has indeed found more and more 
adherents among veterinarians, especially since Schmidt-Mul- 
heim* has directed attention to it, and pointed out the notable 
resemblance between the symptoms of the calving-fever of cows 
and the ptomaine poisoning of man. The ptomaine poisoning 
hypothesis, with the uterus as the fountain head of the toxine 
has, however, as its foundation the same presumption as the hy¬ 
pothesis of Franck, namely, a too rapid contraction of the 
uterus. That is, it is claimed that the ptomaine-like substance 
can not develop in the presence of air. That such an abrupt 
contraction of the uterus does not occur, as a rule, I have already 
tried to demonstrate. Not only is the presumption untenable, 
but there are numerous other circumstances which argue against 
the uterus as the point of origin of the disease. 
* Deutsche Zeitschrift f. Thierniedicin u. vergl. Pathologie, Bd. 11, S. 72, und 
Handbuch der Fleischkunde, S. 230-234. 
{To be continued.') 
