Brain and lung syndromes in thoroughbred foals born with human assistance
			The Lancet published a letter from Mahaffey and Rossdale (1957) describing their observations on a convulsive syndrome affecting about 2 percent of thoroughbred foals delivered with human assistance.  Their letter was in response to the article by Gunther (1957) on postnatal transfusion and an earlier paper by Bonham Carter et al. (1956) on pulmonary problems and "cerebral irritation" in human infants.
		Mahaffey and Rossdale stated, "For a considerable time we have been greatly concerned with the possibility that the syndromes are associated with very early severance of the umbilical cord."  They went on to suggest that this practice may deprive the newborn foal of up to 1500 ml of placental blood, which may be more than 25 percent of a normal foal's blood volume, and then commented:
				"It seems more than a coincidence that, as far as we can verify, the syndromes do not occur in thoroughbred foals which are born unattended in open paddocks in Australia, but are well known in France and Italy, where the cord is always severed by attendants within seconds of birth.  Further, in Europe the disease seems to be unkown in breeds of horses other than thoroughbreds and these generally foal without human 'interference.'  Other domestic species which give birth to their young alone, and 'naturally,' are similarly unaffected."