I 



REMAKKS ON THE CATTLE DISEASES. 167 



Fourth state, eryptogamic fever. Here tlie toxic principle is precipita- 

 ted ill tlie incubative stage, either in the liquids or in the solids, in the 

 interior, and in a manner whereby it determines a more or less intense 

 and very various reaction, according to the kind of fungus and the system 

 which is affected ; thence the different forms of typhoid fevers, such as 

 epizo(itic aphthic, grippe, the contagious typhus of cattle, suette miliaire, 

 gangrenous pleuropneumonia, variola, scarlatina," &c. 



M. Plasse heralded forth his great diseoVerics in terms of no doubt- 

 ful meaning: ^'- Cest a la medicine veterinaire qiCil etait reserve War- 

 river a ces grandes decouvertes.''^ It might be thought that he had 

 arrived at this result after long and painful researches on cryptogamic 

 botany, and demonstrating, the presence of the lower forms of plants in 

 the tissues of such animals, or in the food which communicated disease. 

 Suffice it to say that M. Plasse's observations referred rather to the 

 character of seasons and localities remarkable for the development of 

 cryptogamic vegetation, and suppposed to induce epidemics and epi- 

 zootics. He has recorded some observations on intestinal disturbance, 

 induced by grasses and grains attacked by fungi which he does not 

 name ; but, apart from these imi)erfect records, his entire work is based 

 on the crudest hypotheses. 



It is not my object here to give a history of the cryi^togamic theories 

 in relation to the origin of disease, nor to review the able work of 

 Charles Eobin on the parisitic plants living on man and animals, nor 

 analyze the observations of Swayne, Brittain, Budd, Baly, Sull, Griffith, 

 Bennett, Kobertson, Graves, Swain, Salisbury, Hallier, Eichardson, 

 Duvaiue, IJu Bary, and many more. Apart from the views enunciated and 

 slender facts recorded, it seems to me essential to the completion of the 

 work nndertaken to attempt some means whereby it might be shown 

 whether the periodic, or Texas, fever and the lung plague did owe their 

 origin, as alleged by the New York commissioners for the first, and Hal- 

 lies and Weiss for the second, to a peculiar cryptogamic vegetation. 

 When in the west last summer I had occasion to recommend an investi- 

 gation of the causes of the prevailing cattle fever in the South ; and on 

 its being resolved that I should visit Texas for the purposes of this 

 inquiry, I obtained the assent of the Commissioner of Agriculture to the 

 selection of Mr. H. W. Ravenel, of Aiken, South Carolina, so well known 

 as an enthusiastic and reliable observer and collector in the field of 

 cryptogamic botany, to accompany me. 



At the same time. Dr. J. S. Billings and Dr. E. Curtis, whose attention 

 has been specially directed to the cryptogamic origin of disease, offered 

 to co-operate with me, if I Avould supply material for satisfactory e*[K^ri. 

 ments regarding the two disc^ases named. By a favorable arrangement 

 between the agricultural and army medical departments, these reports 

 are now enriched by observations of the most reliable and interesting- 

 description. 



