116 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



stock we inspected was I'roiii uortliwcsteni, from central and from east- 

 ern Texas. 



The only evidence of suffering was, at first, lameness, which in some 

 eases was due to injuries from animals fi<?hting, or spraining themselves 

 in getting through difficult places. At times a steer gets lame from the 

 long sharp grass, wounding the skin between the hoof; and at other 

 points, as on Smoky Hill, the stony surface, with angular fragments of 

 iron-stone and other hard and sharp bits of flint, wounds the feet and 

 disables a considerable nund)er of cattle. 



On Suu>ky Hill we found, on the 27tli of August, a herd which had 

 been collected, from forty to two hundred miles from the coast, in South- 

 ern Texas, between the 1st and the 18th of May. They arrived at Smoky 

 Hill on the 22d of August. Two animals had died on the route; one 

 died after getting lame, and the other refused to eat, was depressed, 

 languid, and passed blood with the excreta. At the time of our visit, 

 there were twenty or thirty animals which looked gaunt and weak, but 

 we were told that they were work-oxen in poor condition. One animal 

 was lame and stiff, but was reported as improving in condition. Another 

 had died during the night, and we proceeded to examine its internal 

 organs. It was a dun Texan steer, four years old, that had been stam- 

 peded with others the day before, and shortly afterwards had succumbed. 

 The body was still warm, and free from all trace of decomposition. The 

 skin and subcutaneous tissues presented no mark of injury or disease. 

 The organs of respiration were healthy. The heart, of normal volume 

 and consistency, was ecchymosed at its apex, and circumscribed blood 

 extravasations dotted the reflection of pericardium over and around the 

 pulmonary artery. The right cavities of the heart contained a small 

 • clot of blood, and the left were em^^ty. The endocardium was of normal 

 color and thickness throughout. The mouth, fauces, pharynx, oesopha- 

 gus, and the first three stomachs were healthy. The fourth, or true 

 stomach, was reddened over its entire mucous surface. The folds at the 

 cardiac end were of a deep red, with numerous petechia? scattered irregu- 

 larly over their surface. The petechite were usually dark in the center, 

 where the membrane was softening, and of a lighter crimson hue on their 

 circumferences. Many were round, and others of irregular sha])es, either 

 from coalescence of several extravasations or the irregular spreading of 

 one original bleeding spot. 



The small intestine, of a reddish or purplish hue externally, was the 

 seat of ramified redness, with some petechite scattered tliroughout its 

 whole extent. Peyer's glands were healthy. The ileum was, however, 

 nu)re congested than the duodenum or jejumim. 



Tlie ca'cum, somewhat reddened on its entire mucous surface, was 

 strijx'd with blood extravasations which had occurred along tlu' promi- 

 nent edges of the mucous folds at its fundus, and there were several 

 Avell defined ecchymoses scattered irregularly over tlu> whole lining. Tlie 

 color was more or less reddened throughout, until near its termination, 



