PARTURIENT PARESIS. 
521 
trie contents in the larger part of the intestinal canal there nec¬ 
essarily occurs a more rapid absorption not only of the food ele¬ 
ments but also of the injurious products of decomposition. 
Since it occurs that the development of the disease is 
favored by so rapid a distribution and fermentation we may 
conclude that the etiological moment which plays the chief role 
in this form of the disease is the absorption of too large an 
amount of a substance acting as a poison which has developed 
from the great mass of nutritive food during digestion, a sub¬ 
stance which must also be formed in a normal condition in the 
intestinal canal only in non-poisonous quantities. 
That this view of the pathology of over eating is right is 
also verified by the recorded investigations of numerous experi¬ 
menters of recent date regarding the function of the liver, es¬ 
pecially its antitoxic powers upon the poisonous materials 
which are carried to it by the portal vein from the intestinal 
canal. I refer especially to the recorded report upon the im¬ 
portance of hepatic diseases to the organism as a whole by Pro¬ 
fessor Kitt in Vol. 7 of this monthly, page 171. In the light 
of these facts it is easy to understand how the nervous symp¬ 
toms occur in the over eating of cows. Since so great an 
amount of toxic substance can develop in the digestive canal 
after an overfilling of the stomach with ordinary food sub¬ 
stances, that they attain a pathogenic power and since a strik¬ 
ing resemblance exists between the symptoms after overgorging 
and those of calf fever, it must still be considered if calf fever is 
possibly caused by such a toxic substance existing in the ali¬ 
mentary canal. I have consequently repeatedly sought for such 
a causative connection, but have not been able to find any con¬ 
vincing reason for this except the secondary development and 
absorption of toxic substances which could be caused by inter¬ 
ference in the digestive functions, especially also because the 
disease is regularly connected with the time of calving. 
Another affection analogous to overeating must apparently be referred 
to a specific toxic substance*, is that form of hsemaglobinuria (hemoglobinurie 
*Vide —Dieckerhoft’s Auschanung, ref, in Maanedsskrift fur Drylager Bd. 8, S. i8i. 
