REPOKT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 33 



temper or glanders ; veterinary surgeons do not kno\r wliat to do witli 

 it, nor 'what ijb is."' 



Cattle. — SpUnic {Texas) fever. — A few cases of this noteworthy cli- 

 matic disease were reported. The same distinctive features mark every 

 outbreak. ]S"ew evidences that its germ originates in the miasmatic or 

 tide-water region, not only in Texas, but in all the coast-lands from 

 Texas to Virginia, accumulate yearly. Our correspondent in Fluvanna 

 County, Virgmia, (north of the James Eiver, between Richmond and 

 Lynchburgh,) thus writes: 



There are soifle stranjro facts connected -uitli the cattle-disoaso coniniou to the lower 

 tide-water counties of Virginia, known commonly as nmrraiu, bloody urine, or dis- 

 temper, which may throw some light on the Spanish fever following in the track of 

 Texan cattle. In certain districts of this State murrain has always jirevailed m cer- 

 tain seasons, .attacking most frequently yoilng and fat cattle of both sexes. It is well 

 understood that if cows are removed from Upper "S'irginia to Ilichmond, or the lower 

 counties, they are very apt to dio the first year, whereas cattle brought from the 

 lower counties up to Richmond escape. For this reason milch cows brought from Glou- 

 cester and other lower counties are mnch preferred by Richmond buyers ; yet in Glou- 

 cester I have known seven cows out of ten to die of murrain in one fall. Again, 

 throughout certain counties on the south side of the James River, extending to the 

 North Carolina line, cattle are subject to murrain, while in other counties directly 

 abreast of them, on the north side of the river, the disease is unknown, unless commu- 

 nicated by cattle brought from the south side, that in some way infect them, while 

 those from the south side keep well. There seems, then, to be some inherent taint in 

 the constitution of cattle living in certain regions, which may be communicated by 

 contact, and this, while in some cases traceable to climate, in others exists when wo 

 can discover no difterence in climate. A long acquaintance with Texan cattle intro- 

 duced into Louisiana warrants the opinion that they neither die themselves of this 

 disease, nor communicate it to the native herds in Louisiana. 



The fact that Texas cattle do not communicate the disease to Louis- 

 iana stock is well known, and the reason is obvious, viz, both sections 

 are miasmatic. The coast cattle do not communicate splenic fever to 

 other coast cattle, but to herds above tide-water. The fact is indispu- 

 table that cattle of the tide-water counties of Virginia, the Carolinas, 

 Georgia, Florida, and other States on the Gulf coast, do communicate 

 a fatal disease to stock of higher elevations and more salubrious climate, 

 and that this disease has very marked and distinguishing symi)toms and 

 peculiarities which are almost invariable. A correspondent in Murray 

 County, Georgia, writes of a disease which he thinks, from post-mortem 

 examination, presented "well-marked and clearly-defined cases of 

 splenic fever.*' He says it has broken out each summer, since 1SG5, 

 and continues until frost. He does not describe its attendant circum- 

 stances and symptoms, or say whether its advent was heralded by the 

 coming of coast cattle. It may, therefore, or may not, be the veritable 

 splenic fever. Murray County lies in the northT\-est corner of the State, 

 toward Chattanooga, and appears to have a climate in which the splenic 

 contagion might take. In Gilmer, an adjoining county, are reported 

 '•a few cases of Spanish (splenic) fever, among cattle brought from 

 more southern latitudes.^' If the true splenic fever, this must be mis- 

 reported, and must' refer to native cattle, " among cattle brought from 

 more southern latitudes.'' In Knox County, Tennessee, this disease 

 l)revailed mainly among milch cows expo.sed to contact with Texas cattle 

 at a point where they were fed, in their passage to Virginia. The reporter 

 for Lincoln County, Kentucky, states that in February, 1S71, thirty- 

 five Texas cattle were pastured with native stock. In July, the latter 

 began to sicken of Texas fever, and about twenty died. Tlie Texans 

 fattened and did well. In Logan County, Illinois, seventy-five Texas 

 cattle were placed in pasture with two hundred natives, mostly three- 

 year-old steers; thirty-four head of the latter died of the fever. A drove 

 3 A 



