THE SPLENIC FEVER. 121 



cated, by the flesh eaten, to a whole family of human beings, who succumbed from 

 malignant pustule. The Siberian boil plague is one of the typical forms of anthrax, and 

 its history in relation to splenic fever is interesting, inasmuch as it occurs in a vast country, 

 where stock is driven in masses from the east westward ; and an opportunity is thus 

 afforded for contagious transmission which is not often witnessed elsewhere. 



Many so-called blood diseases, all enzootic in their nature, and capable of limited 

 transmission, are classified by the ablest veterinary pathologists of France and Germany 

 with the anthrax fevers. In Germany the most destructive forms are so often characterized 

 by enlargement, softening, and even rupture of the spleen, that the forms of anthrax are 

 included under a generic term, &quot; Mihbrand.&quot; The condition of the spleen in splenic fever 

 would induce many a pathologist to classify it unhesitatingly among the forms of &quot;Mih 

 brand.&quot; But there is a line of demarcation which, in my opinion, can be fairly established. 



Southern cattle capable of propagating this disease usually start from their homes in 

 the winter or early in spring. They do not die, as is always the case where anthrax originates, 

 in large numbers, so as to attract decided attention, on the lands which foster the develop 

 ment of that subtle poison they carry northward. Their systems are not charged with an 

 inoculable virus, such as the anthrax poison always is, when there is a sufficient heat to 

 develop it. The heat during the summer of 1868 was higher than is usually required for 

 the production of the anthrax virus. The best and fattest animals in a herd are the first 

 to die of anthrax, and death is sudden and unexpected; an animal in the apparent enjoy 

 ment of health at night is dead before morning, or seen well in the morning and found 

 dead by noon. French authors speak of their dying &quot;d une apoplexie fulminante.&quot; Had 

 the cattle which have been slaughtered as human food during the past summer, in Chicago 

 and elsewhere, been tainted with a true anthrax, as they have been with splenic fever, medi 

 cal reports would have developed many instances of malignant pustule in man, which they 

 have not done. With the thermometer at 108 or 110 such a result would have been 

 inevitable. 



There is one disease in Europe, which prevails in various parts of the United King 

 dom, and is common on woodland pastures during the spring and summer months, which 

 presents most of the characteristics of splenic fever. It is the black-water, enzootic 

 ha3maturia, or bloody urine, which on the banks of the Dee, in Aberdeenshire, is termed 

 the &quot;darn.&quot; The Germans call it &quot; JBlutharnen,&quot; &quot; JRothharnen,&quot; &quot; Maiseucke, &quot; &quot; Weide- 

 bruch,&quot; and speak of it as an enzootic occurring in spring and summer among &quot;grazing&quot; 

 cattle. It is described as characterized by bloody urine and weakness of gait in hind 

 quarters, associated in some cases with intense fever, and in others with the weakness of 

 anaemia, or the bloodless state. There is sometimes discharge of a little blood with the 

 faeces. There is occasionally diarrhoea, but more commonly the excrement is nearly of 

 normal character. After death the bladder is found distended with bloody urine; the 

 kidneys are dark colored, and their pelves distended with similar urine; the blood is dark, 

 the liver usually light colored, but the spleen congested, and of a dark color, and there 

 are blood extravasations on the mucous and the serous membrane. Indeed, Spinola speaks 

 of the fourth stomach, and even the intestines, as being much inflamed. It is important 

 and instructive to notice the circumstances under which enzootic hsematuria occurs in Great 

 Britain, and other parts of Europe. Since the introduction of turnip husbandry, a malady 

 has arisen among cows, after calving, which is usually known as &quot;red water,&quot; due to the 

 16 



