SPLENIC OR PERIODIC FEVER OF CATTLE. 119 



COMMUNICATION IN STOCK YARDS. 



The earlier reports from Cairo stated that the cows in that city had 

 caught the disease from the Texan cattk^, in steamboat and railway pens. 

 Indeed we AA^ere informed that many of the Cairo cows had been in the 

 habit of wandering not only near, but into, the cattle pens, and eating 

 the hay the Texans left behind them. This is the only observation that 

 would give color to the view that hay might be a means of propagating 

 the disorder. But we learned, at Cairo, that Texan cattle had been 

 loose on the common within the levee, and some stray animals had 

 remained for some days on the very prairie Avhich is the only pasture 

 for the cattle of the town. It was impossible to find a single case which 

 aftbrded reliable grounds for supposing that the only chance for con- 

 tamination was in the cattle pens of Cairo. 



It may be suggested that eating hay which has been poisoned, must 

 be as bad as eating prairie grass over which Texan steers have wandered. 

 But there is this difference, that cattle are not ajjt to eat hay on which 

 the excretions of other cattle have been deposited, and they would 

 attempt to pick up only the clean fodder. On grass lands the growth of 

 grass, and the washings of the pasture by rains, clear off the filth, 

 though they may often leave adhering deleterious principles which are 

 swallowed. A good illustration of this is afforded by the dissemination 

 of tapeworm, the ova of which are distributed with the excrement of dogs 

 and other carnivora ; and, while the fteces are washed away, the ova 

 adhere to blades of grass, and develop in the systems of cattle and 

 sheep. 



I Avould not wish to be understood that I consider it improbable that 

 hay may, under some circumstances, be poisoned by Texan steers, and 

 afterwards give disease to other stock ; but, as yet, no facts prove that 

 such has been the case. On the contrary, the most reliable, though 

 accidental experiment, is afforded by cattle fed by Mr. Sherman, of the 

 Union stock yards, Chicago. He has thirty-five cows which have grazed 

 all summer, close up to the cattle pens, where thousands of southern 

 steers have been inclosed, Avithout intermission. Of these cows the 

 majority have been purchased out of the yards at different times, some 

 last spring, and some haA'e been in the cattle pens with Texan droves. 

 On the occasion of my visit to the yards, I have also seen a Texan calf 

 placed with the cows ; and yet no animals could be in better health than 

 those in Mr. Sherman's dairy. 



This suggestive case proves, in the most incontroA^ertible manner, th; t 

 western cattle can be mingled with Texans in stock yards, can graze 

 side by side Avith Texans, if separated by a fence, and coavs can suckle 

 the Texan calves, Avithout becoming affected with splenic fever. I am 

 not prepared to say that any of tlie cows purchased by Mv. Sherman 

 were fed on liay in the yards, Avhile they Avere in the same pen Avith the 

 Texans, but in all probability they were. 



This point has acquired some importance since the British go\'ern- 



