STATISTICAL AND HISTORICAL RE POUT OF SPLENIC FEVER. 179 



1866, where they remained and mingled safely with the native stock This county lies 

 in a latitude sufficiently high to awaken expectation of a fatal result of such migration; 

 but it is on the Mississippi, in a miasmatic region. 



The Texas correspondents were indignant in their comments on the &quot;Texas cattle 

 fever. Many claimed that their cattle were not subject to any prevailing diseases. One, in 

 Collins County, admitted that cattle brought there from the North are liable to a disease 

 similar in its symptoms. This corresponds with the statement made seventy-five years 

 ago concerning the introduction of European and upland cattle into the coast districts of 

 South Carolina, and witli thousands of similar cases since, which are by no means incom 

 patible with the climatic theory which all the facts seem to sustain, but furnish strong 

 corroboration of it. 



There is no doubt, that the cattle of Texas are thrifty and comparatively free from 

 diseases, while post-mortem examinations, in Texas and in the abattoirs of the northern 

 cities, show enlargement of the spleen and traces of former derangements of the digestive 

 organs. It is also a fact that the annual reports of condition of farm stock, made to the 

 .Department of Agriculture, contain accounts of fatal &quot;murrains,&quot; and diseases of various 

 names, from the miasmatic sections of the country, more frequently than from elevated 

 locations and higher latitudes. In 1867, in Baker County, Florida, (according to the 

 report of a correspondent.) two thousand cattle were destroyed by an unknown disease. 

 &quot;Murrain&quot; was reported, in the returns of the spring of 1867, from many portions of the 

 South, often without a detail of symptoms or circumstances, but in many cases with descriptions 

 highly suggestive of &quot;splenic fever,&quot; as in Towns County, Georgia, the return noting the 

 prevalence of &quot;murrain,&quot; and stating that cattle &quot;pastured with cattle from the South 

 take the murrain and invariably die, though those brought from the South do well.&quot; Tn 

 Barton County, Georgia, twenty cases of &quot;Spanish fever&quot; were reported, and a few in 

 Newton County. The investigation of 1867 showed that the Texas cattle migration 

 northward, which had been closed during the period of the war, its interruption resulting 

 in total exemption from the Texas cattle disease for precisely the same period, had been 

 vigorously prosecuted anew on the return of peace, bringing with it the old disease, which 

 raged just in proportion to the extent of the movement of southern droves. Its ravages, 

 in 1866, were mainly confined to Kansas and Missouri, with a few instances of its preva 

 lence in Kentucky and Southern Illinois. A. few extracts from these returns will illustrate 

 the peculiar features of this disease. 



Kansas. In Linn County it had &quot;been prevalent in .summer and fall, but is seldom, 

 if ever, known in winter.&quot; &quot;A disease made its appearance in Burlingame (in Osage) 

 about the 1st of August, called by some, Spanish fever; by some, dry murrain. After 

 ward it prevailed in other parts of the county. It was principally confined to the 

 Santa Fe road, which runs east and west through the county. Not one in twenty recov 

 ered. The damage could not be less than $5,000. Blooded stock were more frequently 

 attacked and rarely recovered. The usual remedies for murrain were tried, but were 

 of no avail. After that medicines were given as an experiment, but the cures were so 

 few, if any there were, that nothing was established. The first symptoms were a moping 

 and an apparent weakness about the loins. A high fever set in, and the animal kept on 

 foot, eating and drinking as usual, until it laid down to die. Some were packed in wet 

 cloths; some were drenched with salts; to some sulphur, saltpeter, sweet spirits of niter, 



