SPLENIC OR PERIODIC FEVER OF CATTLE. 107 



CAUSES AND l^ATURE OF THE DISEASE. 



In those parts where the splenic or periodic fever of cattle is enzootic, 

 the prevailing inflnences are such as favor the development of intermit- 

 tent disease in man. There are parts more healthy than others ; and 

 the beneficial effects of constant winds, a dry soil, adequate elevation, 

 and the introduction of good systems of culture, tend to make many 

 regions in the vast countries over which malarious conditions prevail 

 favorable for the healtli and prosperity of man. In the most swampy 

 parts those diseases annually recur with the intense heat of summer 

 which are known to characterize low and unhealthy lands in all parts of 

 the world, and these often persist even in the winter season. The bilious 

 remittent and intermittent fevers in man are represented in animals by 

 the deadly charbon or anthrax, the black tongue of domestic and wild 

 ruminants, as also by a marked form of the splenic fever which I am 

 describing. 



Texas and Florida have been chosen as resorts for invalids— for con- 

 sumptive people during the winter. They are considered so healthy 

 countries, that to cast a doubt over the salubrity of Texas might lead 

 any one into difficulties in that State. It is not too much to say of the 

 State that its acclimatized inhabitants prefer to live there rather than 

 choose what might be viewed as a healthier climate further north. But 

 it is impossible for an unprejudiced stranger traveling through the State 

 not to observe the usual spare habit of body, the sallow, yellowish com- 

 plexion, and the want of activity that prevail among the inhabitants. 

 There are exceptions and exceptional spots ; but any one traveling from 

 Maine to Texas can satisfy himself that some condition, whether of soil 

 or climate, is untavorable to the health of man. 



I had not anticipated witnessing the universal indication of a low 

 standard of health in animals. Texans pride themselves on their herds 

 of beeves, on the size cattle often attain, on the masses of fat rolling 

 over the bones aud muscles of steers fed only on mesquite, and they 

 look on Texas as a center whence the world may be supplied with beeves. 



There is every reason for believing that Texas must remain one of the 

 greatest, if not the greatest, cattle-growing State of the Union. But its 

 progress and prosperity demand that farmers should be informed of the 

 conditions whicli are ever in operation against them, and they will 

 doubtless bring their intelligence aud industry to bear in correcting evils 

 that are far from imaginary. 



Inquiries as to the diseases of Texan cattle in Texas are almost always 

 met by people of that State by the declaration that cattle are never sick 

 there; — yet a " norther" may sweep down and drive the cattle onto a 

 narrow neck of land, wliere they have to starve at times for want of 

 food; drought, as in 1 SOI, sometimes destroys thousands; whih» in the 

 winter excessive wet destioys the grasses, favors diarrhea, and unless 

 the cattle can get in the woods and eat some swamp moss, wild 



