Etiology. — Toward  the  end  of  pregnancy,  during  labor,  and  after  labor,
women  sometimes  suffer  from  severe  convulsions,  and  of  those  thus  attacked,
many  die.  Women  who  are  pregnant  for  the  first  time,  and  those  who  are
comparatively  young,  are  the  most  prone  to  suffer.  A  few  of  the  patients
have  been  epileptic,  and  the  fits  are  simply  those  to  which  they  have  long
been  liable.  In  most  cases  of  epilepsy,  however,  the  attacks  do  not  occur
during  the  puerperal  period.  In  some  other  cases,  very  rare,  there  has  been
evidence  of  no  other  causal  condition  than  an  over-excitable  state  of
the  nervous  system,  and  the  convulsions  were  distinctly  excited  by  the
pains  of  labor,  or  by  the  irritation  of  digital  examinations.  In  the  vast
majority  of  cases,  however,  puerperal  convulsions  are  associated  with  the
presence  of  a  large  quantity  of  albumen  in  the  urine,  in  which  casts  also  are
found,  and  in  fatal  cases  the  kidneys  present  indications  of  acute  nephritis.
