106 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Observation XX, September a, 1868. Three-year-old red-and- white cow; the prop 

 erty of Dennis Doran, Brighton, near Chicago. This cow had died during the preceding- 

 night, and was dissected at 3 p. m. on the 5th. There was no sign of decomposition, and 

 the internal organs were still warm. The organs of respiration were healthy. Heart and 

 pericardium sound, and free from ecchymoses. Organs of deglutition and first stomach 

 healthy. Second stomach of a dull red hue in its inner lining. Third stomach normal. 

 Fourth stomach of a dark red color at its cardiac end, with various ecchymoses, and half 

 a dozen small circumscribed spots where the epithelium had been thrown off, and the dark 

 red vascular membrane exposed. The general color of the lining in the antrum pylori was 

 much less intensely red than in the transverse folds, but was the seat of several erosions. 

 The pyloric gland had a zigzag ulcer on its summit. The small intestine was the seat of 

 ramified redness. In the large intestine the longitudinal mucous folds were all reddened 

 along their free margins by blood extravasation. The liver was sound, but the gall blad 

 der was thickened by serous infiltration, and its mucous lining indicated the ramifications 

 of the lesser arteries and veins, which were gorged with blood. The spleen weighed six 

 and a third pounds, was of a dark purplish tint, and its^pulp softened. The kidneys were 

 congested, but not ecchymosed. The urinary bladder was distended by bloody urine. 

 The broad ligaments of the uterus were thickly studded with ecchymoses of a bright 

 arterial hue ; cerebro-spinal centers not examined. 



CAUSES AXD NATURE OF THE DISEASE. 



In those parts where the splenic or periodic fever of cattle is enzootic, the prevailing 

 influences are such as favor the development of intermittent disease in man. There are 

 parts more healthy than others ; and the beneficial effects of constant winds, a dry soil, 

 adequate elevation, and the introduction of good systems of culture, tend to make many 

 regions in the vast countries over which malarious conditions prevail favorable for the 

 health and prosperity of man. In the more swampy parts those diseases which charac 

 terize low and unhealthy lands in all parts of the world annually recur with the intense 

 heat of summer, and often extend into the winter season. The bilious remittent and 

 intermittent fevers in man are represented in animals by the deadly charbon or anthrax, 

 the black tongue of domestic and wild ruminants, as also by a marked form of the splenic 

 fever which I am describing. 



Texas and Florida have been chosen as resorts for invalids for consumptive people 

 during the winter ; and to cast a doubt over the salubrity of Texas might lead any one 

 into difficulties in that State. It is not too much to say of the State that its acclima 

 tized inhabitants prefer to live there rather than to choose what might be viewed as a 

 healthier climate further north; but it is impossible for an unprejudiced stranger traveling 

 through the State not to observe the usual spare habit of body, the sallow, yellowish 

 complexion, and the want of activity prevailing among the inhabitants. There are 

 exceptions and exceptional spots; but it is evident that there exists some condition, 

 either of soil or climate, unfavorable to the health of man. 



I had not anticipated witnessing universal indications of a low standard of health 

 in animals. Texans pride themselves on their herds of beeves, on the size cattle often 

 attain, on the masses of fat rolling over the bones and muscles of steers fed only on 



