PARTURIENT PARESIS 
449 
qiiently met with, and yet calving-fever is exceedingly rare after 
abortion. Seven colleagues with whom I have conferred do 
not recall having seen the disease after an abortion. I have 
myself seen but two cases, two months prior to the completion of 
the normal duration of pregnancy. The catarrhal inflamma¬ 
tion * of the uterine mucosa, before and after abortion, in con¬ 
nection with the rapid contraction of the uterus, should, more¬ 
over, it would seem, furnish both the material and the disposi¬ 
tion for milk fever. It is also universally recognized, as previ¬ 
ously remarked, that parturient collapse occurs very largely 
among well-nourished, good milk cows. It is incomprehensible 
how high feeding before calving and a heavy secretion of milk 
after should produce a tendency to the formation of toxins in 
the uterus. 
It is further generally admitted that the malady is more rare 
in regions where the soil is light as well as among cows of the 
beef strains ; consequently it is difficult to understand why the 
development of ptomaines in the uterus should not occur with 
equal facility among such cows as among well nourished cows 
of the dairy breeds. 
It is moreover quite improbable, that the formation of a 
toxin in the uterus should suddenly cease after a course of 24-48 
hours, at which epoch the patients frequently recover without 
the use of antitoxins or antiseptic therapeutics. The lochia in¬ 
deed decreases less rapidly, and the uterus gradually closes 
more and more and obstructs in that way complete aeration, so 
that one of the chief conditions for the formation of ptomaines 
must still be present in a higher degree than before, but still 
at the same time the disease abates. 
At least there remains to be explained by this hypothesis 
the fact that calving-fever almost never occurs in primipara, 
that is, in heifers. 
There is consequently a succession of factors, which contra¬ 
dict the thought that parturient paresis has its genesis in a too 
sudden contraction of the uterus and a consequent obstruction 
i 
i 
* B. Bang Maanedsskrift, f. Dyrlarger, Bd. 8. S. 152. 
