SPLENIC OR PERIODIC FEVER OF CATTLE. 



Ill 



The numhers and dates relating to the several importations at Brondlands 



are as follotvs : 



Up to the 12th of September, the date of a letter from Brondlands, 

 thirty-one of the animals had died, "most if not all of them from inju- 

 ries received in transit." Out of four thousand five hundred and twen- 

 ty-seven animals driven or transported in steamers and on railroads, 

 considering- the great distances these had to travel, it is not surprising that 

 some should die; and all which we examined alive api)eared healthy 

 and thriving. That they communicated disease to a very serious extent 

 is proved beyond doubt; and it would have been important to deter- 

 mine, by the slaughter of many, their real condition. 



On the Cth of August I visited Brondlands a second time, for the 

 purjiose of dissecting a Texan steer which the i:)eople of the neighbor- 

 hood believed would show signs of the disease. We inspected the herds 

 generally, which still looked in perfect health, but one of the imported 

 cattle was reported ill and dying. He had reached the farm about the 

 middle of July, and had not thriven well. It was, as usual, supposed 

 that he had sustained injuries on the journey. When I saw this animal 

 alive, he was lying down, with his head stretched on the ground; imper- 

 ceptible pulse at the jaw, great listlessness and prostration, but pre- 

 senting no distinctive symptoms of splenic fever. After death 1 fouTid 

 that there was an efiiision of bloody serum uiuler the jaw. The organs 

 of respiration were healthy, and the lieart sound. The whole of the 

 stomach and the intestines were normal; as also the liver, gall bladder, 

 and spleen. The kidneys and bladder exhibited no signs of blood 

 extravasations, or alteration in the urine, such as is seen in splenic 

 fever. From the general emaciation of the body, and the absence of 

 any lesion of disease, it was evident to me that this animal had died of 



