two cases the malady is a very grave one.

_Causes._--The causes are largely the same as those causing inflammation of
the vagina. Greater importance must, however, be attached to exposure to
cold and wet and to septic infection.

_Symptoms._--The symptoms appear two or three days after calving, when the
cow may be seen to shiver, or the hair stands erect, especially along the
spine, and the horns, ears, and limbs are cold. The temperature in the
rectum is elevated by one or two degrees, the pulse is small, hard, and
rapid (70 to 100), appetite is lost, rumination ceases, and the milk
shrinks in quantity or is entirely arrested, and the breathing is hurried.
The hind limbs may shift uneasily, the tail be twisted, the head and eyes
turn to the right flank, and the teeth are ground. With the flush of heat
to the horns and other extremities, there is redness of the eyes, nose, and
mouth, and usually a dark redness about the vulva. Pressure on the right
flank gives manifest pain, causing moaning or grunting, and the hind limbs
are moved stiffly, extremely so if the general lining of the abdomen is
involved. In severe cases the cow lies down and can not be made to rise.
There is usually marked thirst, the bowels are costive, and dung is passed
with pain and effort. The hand inserted into the vagina perceives the
increased heat, and when the neck of the womb is touched the cow winces.
Examination through the rectum detects enlargement and tenderness of the
womb. The discharge from the vulva is at first watery, but becomes thick,
yellow, and finally red or brown, with a heavy or fetid odor. Some cases
recover speedily and may be almost well in two days; a large proportion
perish within two days of the attack, and some merge into the chronic form,
terminating in leucorrhea. In the worst cases there is local septic
infection and ulceration, or even gangrene of the parts, or there is
general septicemia, or the inflammation involving the veins of the womb
causes coagulation of the blood contained in them, and the washing out of
the clots to the right heart and lung leads to the blocking of the vessels
in the latter and complicating pneumonia. Inflammation of the womb and
passages after calving are always liable to these complications, and
consequently to a fatal issue. Franck records three instances of rapidly
fatal metritis in cows, all of which had been poisoned from an adjacent cow
with retained and putrid afterbirth. Others hav