178 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



short time and die, but their disease will not affect the cattle raised there ; but, on the other 

 hand, take cattle raised in what we call the distempered part of our country, that is, the low 

 country, from warm latitudes up into a colder one, they will themselves improve all the 

 time ; but, without being sick themselves, they will spread the fever and kill the cattle in 

 the section of country into which they are taken, till they travel on, or have staid long 

 enough for the fever to leave the system. I have been in the habit of driving cattle from 

 Florida to Virginia, and have found my cattle to improve and do well; but after I passed 

 the line of 34 degrees they began to spread the fever all along the line of travel among the 

 stock raised in that section of the country, till I struck the line of Virginia, which is a dis-, 

 tance of about two hundred and fifty miles; then it ceased, and all went on well. I suppose 

 the reason for its stopping was that my cattle had been out of the low country long enough 

 to become acclimated. Hence, I think the disease is originated from a change of climate, 

 either from a colder to a warmer climate, or taking them from a warm climate to a cooler 

 and more healthy one. How it is that they carry the disease with them and give it to 

 others, without injury to themselves, is a mystery I am not able to solve, and will leave 

 that to be discussed by the bureau of investigation.&quot; 



THE INVESTIGATION OP 1867. 



A knowledge of the peculiar features of this disease, first described without a name, 

 afterward as an &quot; unknown disease, or sometimes &quot;murrain,&quot; (an unmeaning term applied 

 to various diseases in the Soulh,) in later times as &quot;Spanish fever,&quot; and in the investigation 

 of 1868 as &quot;splenic fever,&quot; has been mainly confined, until recently, to localities in which 

 its effects have been felt. A few paragraphs relating to it found their way into agricultural 

 papers, but nearly all that was generally known of its real character and the extent of its 

 prevalence, up to the time of its outbreak in Illinois in the summer of 1868, was obtained 

 by the Statistical Division and published in the Monthly Report of Agriculture. 



In 1866 inquiries were made at several points, and the existence of the disease was 

 ascertained in Southern Kentucky. Southwestern Missouri, and Southern Kansas. In 1 867, 

 the statements hitherto received being more suggestive than complete or satisfactory, a 

 circular was issued inquiring as to the places, and dates of its appearance, the amount of 

 loss sustained and the remedial treatment adopted. 



The replies demonstrated the truth of previous information and the traditions of the early 

 cattle trade in the South, showing that the diseasehad hitherto been developed among natives, 

 on the arrival of the Texans in Southern Kansas and Missouri, in the more elevated sections 

 of Arkansas, in parts of Tennessee, in Southern Kentucky, in North Carolina, and on the 

 hill lands of Georgia and South Carolina. It was not reported firther north than Southern 

 Illinois, and its very existence appeared to be unknown in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Mary 

 land. A fact suggestive of its climatic origin showed its existence in the mountain lands 

 of Georgia, where it was generated by the presence of lowland cattle that had scarcely 

 been removed a distance of fifty miles. It appeared that cattle driven from Texas to 

 New Orleans did not communicate the disease to the cattle of Louisiana. Nor was there 

 any evidence that the cattle of any one lowland section, when driven to another, caused 

 an outbreak of the disease. A marked instance was reported from Arkansas, eight 

 hundred Texas cattle having been driven directly from Texas into Mississippi County, in 



