126 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



draiuago. Tlie fjinners' cows were healthy; whereas those fed on the 

 poor peo[)k*'s crops suffered from "red water,'' after calving. This is a 

 distinct form of enzootic haimatnria, due ai)parently to some modili(;a- 

 tions in the character of a root, grown on damp and retentive soils. It 

 is, therefore, proved that the conditions of soil may injuriously aftect 

 domestic animals, and produce a definite and <listinct disease, tlirough 

 foods that are usually wholesome. But the enzootic h;ematuria Avliich 

 does not depend on a root crop, and which attacks steers, heifers, preg- 

 nant and even calving cows, has usually been ascribed, like the milk- 

 sickness of Illinois, to some definite poison; and the singular manifesta- 

 tions of the disease, as it travels from Texas, would give weight to such 

 an opinion. Tlie "darn" of Aberdeenshire was supposed at one time to 

 be due to a harmless, wild anemone, and afterward to the "darnel 

 grass," or LoUum temulentum ; but the opinion which I formed on the 

 spot was, that the cattle died from eating the young shoots of oaks, 

 and other astringent plants. 



Medical men have had their attention directed to this subject during 

 the past summer; and, in some instances, they have referred to it as a 

 malignant typhus or typhoid fever. It is widely dift'erent from both in 

 its origin, development, and progress. The morbid lesions, so far as 

 blood extravasations are concerned, might suggest an analogy to typhus; 

 but this is not the only disease associated with blood changes and 

 petechia?. AVho ever saw a spontaneous development of malignant 

 typhus on the healthy, open prairies of this country, even in mauf If 

 it be typhus, how is it that it is not contagious, and certainly not infec- 

 tions ? If typhus, why do the sick Avestern steers not communicate it as 

 readily as the Texans ? It is assuredly neither typhus nor typhoid fever; 

 and its origin, in the causes whicjh we have reason to believe operate 

 most in its production in the south, approaches ague more closely than 

 any other disorder. Splenic fever is not an intermittent or remittent 

 disease ; but it probably manifests itself spontaneonslj" in districts, such 

 as are commonly invaded by malaria, and this is what we see constantly 

 in relation to the enzoiitic diseases of animals, and especially those in 

 which the spleen has atendency to congestion, hemorrhage, and enlarge- 

 ment. 



There is really no analogue in man, so far as our observations extend; 

 and, in stating that the circumstances of its «levelopment are more like 

 the reputed results of malarious intoxication, it must not be thought 

 that we believe in the commonly accepted, but very vague and unsatis- 

 factory, notions as to the nature of malaria. The conclusions, therefore, 

 which 1 am disposed to draw from all the facts and arguments, adduced 

 in relation to the causes ami natur«' of si)lenic fever, are — 



First. That southern cattle, esin'cially from the Gulf coast, are affected 

 with a latent m- an a|)i)arent form of the disease. 



Secondly. That they become affected in conse(pience of the nature of 



