INFECTION. 129 



used, the animals should be killed when first attacked, and the flesh 

 cooked and eaten as soon as possible, as the meat soon suffers putre- 

 faction. 



Bollinger gives the following conclusions with reference to his 

 study of the disease : 



1. The disease is neither a form of anthrax nor of septic or pu- 

 trid infection, but — 



2. It may be considered as a mycosis of a most dangerous kind, 

 which invariably terminates fatally. 



3. The infectious elements may be either endogenous or exoge- 

 nous. 



4. The disease, like anthrax, belongs to those forms which may 

 be transmitted by the soil. It is not contagious. 



5. The infectious elements are active when introduced into the 

 subcutaneous tissues, but also when introduced into the digestive 

 tract. 



6. The disease can be experimentally transmitted to cattle, sheep, 

 goats, rats, and mice, though cattle become only infected in a natu- 

 ural way upon enzootic outbreaks. 



7. Bollinger gave it the name of " emphysema infectiosum." 

 We have now come to the consideration of a disease of the bo- 

 vine family which seems to be essentially American in its nation- 

 ality, the — 



Texas, Spanish, or Splenic Fever. 



I wish it were possible for me to refer to a really reliable report 

 or description of this disease. My own studies have been made 

 upon the report of John Gamgee to the Commissioner of Agricult- 

 ure of the United States, on animal diseases, and published in 

 1871. 



I wish it were possible for me to say one single word in favor of 

 this report. It is a disgrace to the veterinary profession, to the man 

 who wrote it, and to the Government which published it. It is a 

 miserably arranged, illogical, and erroneous production. Symptoms, 

 definition, and periods, are mixed up, and there is no connection 

 between the parts. The pathological anatomy is simply abomina- 

 ble, and one which I should be ashamed to have a student produce. 



History. 



An attempt at the history of the disease is made by another 

 than Gamgee, but is of such a quality that we do not need to refer 

 to it. 



