SPLENIC OR PERIODIC FEVER OF CATTLE. 125 



attract decided attention, on the lands which foster the development of 

 that subtle poison they carry northward. Their systems are not charged 

 with an inocnlable virus, such as the anthrax poison always is, when 

 there is a suflficient heat to develop it. The heat, during the suujnier of 

 18C8, was higher than is usually required for the production of the 

 anthrax virus. Tlie best and fattest animals in a herd are the first to 

 die of anthrax, and death is sudden, unexpected ; and an animal in the 

 apparent enjoyment of health at night is dead before morning, or seen 

 well in the morning and found dead by noon. French authors speak of 

 their dying "d'une apoplexie fulminante." Had the cattle which have 

 been slaughtered as human food, during the past summer, in Chicago 

 and elsewhere, been tainted with a true anthrax, as they have been with 

 splenic fever, medical reports would have developed many instances of 

 malignant pustule in man, which they have not done. With the ther- 

 mometer at 108° or 110° such a result was inevitable. 



There is one disease in Europe, which prevails in various parts of the 

 United Kingdom, and is common on woodland pastures during the 

 spring and summer months, which presents most of the characteristics 

 of splenic fever. It is the black-water enzootic hsjematuria, or bloody 

 urine, which on the banks of the Dee, in Aberdeenshire, is termed the 

 " darn." The Germans call it " Blutharnen," " Rotharnen," " Maiseuche," 

 "Weidebruch," and speak of it as an enzootic occurring in spring and 

 summer among "grazing" cattle. It is described as characterized by 

 bloody urine, and weakness of gait in hind quarters, associated, in some 

 cases, with intense fever; and in others with the weakness of antemia, 

 or the bloodless state. There is sometimes discharge of a little blood 

 with the fieces. There is occasionally diarrhea, but more commonly 

 the excrement is nearly of normal character. After death the bladder 

 is found distended with bloody urine, the kidneys are dark colored, and 

 their pelves distended with similar urine ; the blood is dark, the liver 

 usually light colored; but the spleen congested, and of a dark color; 

 and there are blood extravasations on the mucous and the serous mem- 

 brane. Indeed, Spinola speaks of the fourth stomach, and even the 

 intestines, as very inflamed. It is important and instructive to notice 

 the circumstances under which enzootic hamiaturia occurs in Great 

 Britain, and other parts of Europe. Since the introduction of turnip 

 husbandry, a malady has arisen among cows, which is usually known as 

 "red water," after calving, due to the condition of turnips grown on 

 ill-drained lands. In 185G I was engaged in investigating the diseases 

 of Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire, for the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society of Scotland. 1 tlien distinctly ascertained that tracts of land 

 of the same character, and adjoining one another, grew turnips capable 

 or incapable of producing the disease, according to the state of drainage. 

 Indeed, farmers whose lands were well cultivated were sometimes sur- 

 rounded by poor people, growing turnips on small phits, or so-called 

 "l)endules," of the same lauds, but without the advantages of good 



