PARTURIENT PARESIS. 
447 
ORIG INAL ART ICLES. 
PARTURIENT PARESIS. 
(THE SO-CAEEED CAEVING-EEVER, OR PARTUR¬ 
IENT APOPLEXY.) 
STUDIES AND INVESTIGATIONS INTO ITS CAUSE AND 
HANDLING. ’ 
By J. Schmidt, Veterinarian, Koeding, Denmark. 
Translated for the America7i Veterbiary Review, by W. L. Wieeiams, 
New York State Veterinary College. 
{Contmued fro7n page 401.) 
When calving-fever appears immediately before or during 
birth, the contractions of the uterus and the entire processes of 
labor have either not yet begun at all or are too feeble as a rule 
’ to expel the foetus. This partial paralysis continues after birth 
and ceases only with the end of the disease. Although the 
air can gain no admission to the uterine walls until the foetal 
liquids have been expelled, yet it can hardly be the case with 
the uterine secretions and their decompositions before or during » 
the feeble preliminary labor-pains. 
The development of the toxines must, moreover, have begun 
before the symptoms appear as well as prior to the recognition 
of any contraction or secretion of the uterus. 
If the disease develops 24-48 hours after calving, neither is 
the os uteri so closed, nor the uterus found so contracted, as a 
rule, that the air could not enter on this account. 
After an easy birth and after expulsion of the placenta, there 
exists an evidently greater opportunity for the entrance of air 
through the os uteri than through the lips of the vulva, because 
these latter on account of their elasticity quickly resume their 
contact with one another, so that on this ground alone no materi¬ 
ally easier admission of air can ensue in case of gradual, than 
with a sudden contraction of the uterus. When the vulvar 
lips have resumed their normal contact, air can only penetrate 
the vagina at the upper commissure during urination. If, 
