STATISTICAL AND HISTORICAL REPORT OF SPLENIC FEVKif. 187 



loss. A full report of the symptoms and ravages of this disease was made by Dr. Albert 

 Badger, of Vernon, from which the following extracts are taken : 



&quot;This disease was first recognized as having been propagated by cattle driven from 

 Texas twelve or thirteen years ago ; it having been in the county some two seasons previous 

 to its having been traced to the Texas cattle. 



&quot;From the first breaking out of this fever it was found to be confined to the large 

 roads or highways running through the county from south to north, and, finally, was 

 centered on the Texas cattle, I believe, in the year 1853, by its being confined to one 

 highway through the county over which these cattle passed that year. On this road the 

 disease was quite fatal, killing about fifty per cent, of all the cattle on the road, and 

 persons living near the water-courses over which the road crossed lost as high as ninety 

 per cent. Captain Freeman Barrows and Peter Colley, the one living at the ford of the 

 Osage River, the other near by, lost ninety per cent. ; one of them owning about one 

 hundred head, while the other had considerably above that number. Mr. Collins, living 

 at the ford of Clear Creek, south of the above, lost an equal proportion. The disease 

 being in no other part of the county that year satisfied the people, on this road at least, 

 that they had found the true origin, as it had been among the cattle in the county for two 

 summers past. In a season or two after almost every settler of the county was convinced 

 that the Texas cattle in some way communicated this fever to our stock, although a few 

 persons, living secluded from (lie great highways, were unbelievers, and still remain so. 

 In fact, the way this disease is propagated, the obscurity surrounding it, together with the 

 different opinions of persons familiar with it, give them, at least, a reasonable excuse for 

 doubting the prevailing belief. Two things are agreed to by all : the symptoms of the 

 fever and its fatality, the latter being much greater in a warm dry summer than in a cold 

 wet one; the disease always ceasing when the frosts have killed the vegetation. 



The first symptom of the fever, discoverable several days before any appearance of 

 sickness, is a dry cough, noticeable by careful observers. In a few days after this the 

 nose becomes dry and the ears slightly drooping, and more flies will collect than on 

 healthy cattle. At this stage the breath will be found to have lost its sweetness and 

 assumed the sickening feverish smell generally, if not always, found in the Texas cattle, 

 which 1 can best describe by comparing it to the smell of our slaughter-houses, or con 

 stantly crowded stock-yards in cities. From this condition in one or two days the fever 

 gains its highest stage, and is found to have disseminated itself over the whole body, the 

 heat being very great; the arteries of the neck are seen to beat in short, heavy throbs; 

 the ears becoming very much lopped; the hinder parts reel in walking, the animal getting 

 up or lying down with difficulty ; the breath and exhalations are very disagreeable ; the end 

 of the tail usually hollow for two or three inches; the pith in the horn has commenced to 

 decay, if not already decayed; the animal refusing to notice the herd, remaining stupid, if 

 not disturbed, neither seeking food nor water. Some, in this stage, will pass water mixed 

 with blood, and dung naturally, others will pass water of a natural color and not dung at 

 all, or but very little, and that in a dryish lump. In another type of the disease, which 

 will occur perhaps in every eighth or tenth case, after being taken the same way, and 

 having the same symptoms as those described, even to the hollow horns and tail, the 

 animal does not get weak, sluggish, or stupid, but is always to be found on its feet, in a 

 watchful attitude, with head turning to any noise, which, if close by, it rushes toward, 



