PARTURIENT PARESIS. 
453 
bacterial or other pathological affections in the mammae, must 
first be more accurately determined. 
Prior to the advent and at the commencement of calf fever 
the udder is frequently found somewhat swollen and tense; 
possibly a specific calf fever germ could be the cause of this, 
with corresponding slight local reaction, as well as the cause of 
the above-named mammitis with paralysis. But against an 
accidental bacterial invasion of the udder as a cause of partu¬ 
rient collapse must be repeated the objections already raised to 
a similar bacterial invasion of the uterus, in that the disease 
occurs, preeminently in good milk cows and after easy births, 
etc., and are not therefore capable of being harmonized. Bac¬ 
teria, which would quite incidentally invade the udder through 
the teats, must find exactly as good opportunity for their devel¬ 
opment in one cow as in another when an exciting cause has 
once framed the way. Especially would such bacteria call forth 
those changes in the mammary secretion which could be cer¬ 
tainly recognized clinically, and the disease would not as a rule 
subside so rapidly as is frequently the case. 
As already alleged, the character of the symptoms indicates 
that calving-fever is due to a toxic substance taken into the 
blood. A reasonable argument for this view is found in a com¬ 
parison of the symptoms of this malady with those of over gorg¬ 
ing (plenalvia) in cattle. I have been strongly impressed for 
many years with the great resemblance of these tv/o diseases of 
cattle. 
Whether a cow breaks loose in her stall, or the keeper 
in over-indulgence feeds her with rich food-stnffs, oats, barley, 
rye meal, etc., as long as she can eat, or if she escapes from the 
pasture and gets into a grain field, preferably getting into a 
green oats field, or finds a pile of green buckwheat or green 
turnip tops, there will always ensue, if she is sufficiently hungry 
and has enough time to bolt without hindrance too large a quan¬ 
tity of food, a train of symptoms which offer a remarkable re¬ 
semblance to parturient paresis. 
For the purpose of illustration I will take from my note 
