254 A STRANGE CATTLE DISEASE. 



of tlio State to tlio oaklands intlie middleportionoftlio State. TMs marlied the prog- 

 ress the tliseaso was mailing at that date, and indicated the belief that its cause ex- 

 isted in aud was coulincd to the piue lands in the eastern portion of the State. But 

 the flisease has slowly crept across the midland belt and into and nearly across the 

 Piedmont belt of this State. A recent North Carolina statute, passed I think in 1876- 

 '77, prohibits the dri-viujic of cattle from below the Blue Eidge into Watauga county, 

 which is on and west of the Blue Eidge, in the mountain region of the State. 



I regret that I have not the means, in this secluded locality, of giving you exact 

 dates aud fuller references. I think that when I wrote the letter in 1872, to which 

 you refer, the "distemper" had just reached Morganton, in Burke county, North 

 Carolina, within a few miles of the foot-hills of the Blue Eidge. I am glad to be able 

 to state that its progress, as it approaches the Blue Eidge and reaches higher eleva- 

 tion, seems to bo slower; and strengthens the bcUef generally held here, that it will 

 not get a permanent foot-hold in the cool climate of our mountains west of the Blue 

 Eidge. 



Some of the facts connected with the progress and contagious character of this dis- 

 ease are so strange as to challenge credulty; and yet so important and so easily veri- 

 fied,' that it is still more strange that they are so little known, aud have been sub- 

 jected to so little careful and systematic investigation. 



The progress of the disease over the region which it infests may be compared to that 

 of the disease called ringworm on a surface of the human body. There is a slowly ad- 

 vancing angry external border around the infected region, in which border the disease 

 is violently active, killing a large proportion of the cattle where it first makes its ap- 

 pearance, on many of the farms all, or nearly all. This angry border advances at an 

 irregular rate, and presents an irregular outline, pausing in j)laces for several years ; 

 and then perhaps advancing suddculy and destructively several miles in a single sea- 

 son. I think I have observed in Caldwell and Burke coitnties, North Carolina, and it 

 is probably the case elsewhere, that it sometimes makes more rapid i)rogress along the 

 d(iep valleys than above them, I have not observed that it advances along the lead- 

 ing thoroughfares of travel and traffic, except as they conform with such valleys. In 

 Wilkes coiinty, North Carolina, it has made a long pause on the south bank of the 

 Yadkin Eiver. But I fear it is about to get a permanent foothold on the north bank. 

 James Gwyn, Elkin, Surry covmty. North Carolina, who lives on the north bank of 

 the Yadkin in Wilkes county, has lost cattle twice from it, and can inform you of its 

 progress, in his neighborhood. 



But though thus irregular in its outline and progress, this angry border which sur- 

 rounds the infected region has, at all times, a tolerably definite location, aud is desig- 

 nated among us as the " distemper" line. The region within, over whicli the disease 

 has already jiassed, is said to be within or below the "distemper " line. The region be- 

 yond it to which the distemper has not permanently reached, is said to be above or 

 without the "distemper" line. 



The disease is most fatal iu autiunn, disappears after white frost, and does not reap- 

 pear until warm weather in the late spring or summer. 



The country below the distemper line, like the surface within the border of the ring- 

 worm, seems to be comparatively free from the disease. The cattle have become 

 acclimated, and there are only occasional cases of the " distemper." But whenever 

 cattle from above the distemper line are driven below it after warm weather is well 

 advanced, or in winter, and suffered to remain there till then, there is a strong proba- 

 bility that they will take the "distemper" and die of it. 



When cattle from below the distemper line are driven above it in winter, they may 

 remain there pei-manently without any probability that thej^ will snfi'er from or prop- 

 agate the disease. And if cattle from below the "distemper" line, aud acclunated 

 there, are driven above the distemper line after warm weather has set iu, they will 

 thrive and fatten, and show no outward appearance of the disease. But they impart 

 the disease in its most destructive character, especially when they have been heated 

 by hard driving or work, to the healthy cattle around them. Cattle only passing over 

 the road which they have traveled, it may be several days before, if it has not rained 

 in the mean time, will take the disease and die. As cattle are very apt to smell the 

 dimg of otlier cattle in passing over it, it seems probable that iu such cases the germs 

 of the disease are inhaled from the dung. 



Still more wonderful than this, when taken iu connection with it, is the fiict that 

 the cattle thus taking the disease from apparently healthy cattle, aud dying of it in 

 its acute form, may die surroxnided by healthy cattle of their own neighborhood to 

 which they will not inipart the disease. However violent such accidental outbreaks 

 of the disease may be at the time, it never gains a permanent foothold when carried 

 in this way iar al)0ve the .slowly advancing " distemper" line. 



I am not skilled nor well-read in Iho diseases of cattle, or in otlier diseases. In the 

 only boolc I have \vhicii treats of Iho diseases of cattle, a slip-shod American rehash 

 and abridgment of a standard I]nglish work, the disease called in England red water 

 rcscmldcs our so-called " ilistemx)er " more than any other tliseaso described in it. 



