STATISTICAL AND HISTORICAL EEPORT OF SPLENIC FEVER. 189 



some think it is through the slobber or froth which is left on the grass. On one thing 

 they agree, that the fever is communicated in some way, raging until the cold weather 

 puts a stop to it, no remedy appearing to have any effect. From the few cases mentioned, 

 which are selected from many of like nature, I have been led to believe, first, that the 

 disease is conveyed to our cattle by those from Texas; second, that the feeding of a large 

 herd one winter in this climate does not prevent the spread of the infection from them the 

 next season; third, that Texas cattle, in apparent good health, give disease to ours; 

 fourth, that the disease is not contagious from our own cattle to each other; fifth, that 

 killing frost will stop the disease; sixth, that no remedy has been found to cure this 

 fever. 



&quot; By a very close observation of this disease among my own and neighbors stock for 

 the last thirteen years, I have generally found, on opening those that had died, but very 

 little blood, and the following results : In those that passed water mixed with blood the 

 kidneys and surrounding parts were entirely decayed, the other parts of the body 

 sound; those that did not dung at all, or but little, with manifolds perfectly dry and 

 partly decayed, while the large stomach would be more or less mortified, other parts 

 healthy; those that appeared to dung and pass water naturally, with a liver more or 

 less decayed, the gall always swelled to its greatest tension; other parts healthy; 

 those that were on their feet in a watchful attitude, the brain was found more or less 

 decayed. This leads me to believe the disease is in the blood, which finally becomes 

 congestive, destroying the parts in a few hours after it becomes seated, and no doubt in 

 many cases could be cured if we knew exactly where it had located itself, blood-letting 

 not being sufficient of itself to check the inflammation. The hollow horn and tail no doubt 

 is caused by the fever destroying the blood in the extremities before it does in the vessels, 

 which it. does, in a great measure, before death. The present law is very defective. 

 First, it only precludes the sick ones from passing through the county, and few men under 

 oath can say that because a steer has an unhealthy smell he is sick; second, in order to 

 separate the lame or sick ones, if any, the drovers, under the present law, are required 

 to impound them in order that the selection may be made, &c. But it is little use to 

 select the sick ones when there is equal danger from those that are apparently well.&quot; 



Mr. Nathan Bray, of Mount Vernon, Lawrence County, Mo., attested to the infec 

 tion of whole districts in Southern Missouri from 1853 to 1868, except during the period 

 of the exclusion of southern cattle by the late war. He states that immediately after 

 possession of Forts Smith and Gibson had been regained, the traffic was renewed, and 

 the farmers along the military road in Kansas suffered losses of cattle. Away from the 

 route traveled by Texas cattle no such losses occurred. Soon these cattle were distribu 

 ted through the interior, and, as a result, heavy losses of horned stock were sustained. Mr. 

 B. declares untrue the statement that the Texas cattle do not themselves have the disease, 

 and states that he has seen many sicken and die with it. 



Mr. William Montgomery, of Stockton, Missouri, a dealer in cattle, stated that from 

 1861 to 1865 there were no Texas cattle, and not a single case of splenic fever, in South 

 west Missouri. 



Mr. Huron Burt, of Galloway County, Missouri, referred to a lot of oxen driven 

 through that county early in the spring of 1865, and states that wherever they grazed a 

 virus was left which infected cattle feeding on the same ground, and that it retained its 



