124 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [May 



employed in scientific investigations with a view to as- 

 certaining the causes and possible remedies against the 

 diseases of cattle and live stock which formerly entailed 

 serious losses to the owners. 



Cattle Ticks must be held responsible for much more 

 than the perforation of hides and the sucking of blood — 

 the bites introducing disease germs previously acquired 

 by the ticks from infected sources, and giving rise to in- 

 flammatory sores, the effect of which upon the animal is 

 to set up conditions of disease known as tick fever, red 

 water, etc., which in many cases prove fatal. 



The process of examining the animals and pulling off 

 the adherent ticks is not only tedious and difficult to car- 

 ry out thoroughly, but it for the most part greatly ag- 

 gravates the trouble, inasmuch as the hold of the tick is 

 usually so tenacious that rather than let go it allows it- 

 self to be torn away, leaving its barbed rostrum imbedded 

 in the flesh, and by its presence produces a festering cen- 

 tre which in combination with many others contributes 

 towards the general blood-poisoning. The safer methods 

 of clearing the cattle from ticks, by the application of a 

 wash which by obstructing their breathing pores causes 

 them to drop off by themselves to avoid suffocation, has 

 not been effective as against the feverish symptoms which 

 supervened in consequence of bites already inflicted. At- 

 tention was therefore directed towards the possibilities 

 of counteracting the disease by the injection of some suit- 

 able anti-toxin. This has been fairly successful. 



Larval ticks are capable of living, in some instances, for 

 a period of over four months without food or moisture, 

 apart from their host. These young ticks attach them- 

 selves to their host singly, and not in pairs or clusters. 

 Up till six days their growth is scarcely noticeable, but 

 on the seventh day they undergo a change and throw off 

 their skin, and are then seen with an extra pair of legs. 

 From the seventh to the fourteenth day they grow but 



