182 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



SEUIES II. — EXA:\riNATI()NS OF BLOOD AND SECRETIONS FROM CATTLE 

 AFFECTED WITH THE TEXAS OR SPLENIC FEVER. 



On the 30tli of Ai)ril, 1809, two four-year-old steers were killed at 

 Corpus Cliristi, Texas, and vacuum tubes were filled by Professor Gam- 

 gee with the blood, urine, and bile. Professor (iamgee's notes state that 

 the spleen of these animals weighed respectively three and a half and 

 three and three-quarter pounds; the livers were fatty; the true stomachs 

 presented erosions, and there were punctiform ecchymoses in the pelvis 

 of the kidneys and in the bladder. 



The blood and secretions were examined microscoi)ically by Professor 

 Gamgee, immediately after the death of the animal, with a power of 

 live hundred and fifty diameters, but nothing unusual was discovered. 



On the 25th of May one of the blood tubes was opened, and the con- 

 tents examined Avith a power of eight hundred diameters. 



The blood was dark, firmly coagulated, and without offensive odor. 

 No white corpuscles were seen ; the red corpuscles were mostly normal, 

 a few being crenated or triangular. Patches of granular matter, a few 

 motionless bacteria, and molecules, single or in chains of two or three, 

 having a vibrating, swarming motion, were observed. 



In short all the ai)pearances were those usually presented by blood 

 when the white corpuscles have disintegrated and it is in the incipient 

 stage of putrefaction. But besides these there were present yellow 

 globular bodies, smaller than the red blood corpuscles, mostly united by 

 twos and threes, though in some cases four or six were strung together, 

 and presenting the general characteristics of minute spores. Ether, 

 liquor potassa3, and sulphuric acid had no particular effect on them. 

 (Fig. 11, PI. 1.) 



In two of the tubes from the same cattle, opened one month later, the 

 contents were putrefying, and micrococcus and bacteria were abundant. 



On the 29th of May vacuum tubes of blood and secretions from two 

 yearling steers, killed at Houston, Texas, May 18, 1809, were received 

 and examined. These animals presented the usual lesions — enlarged 

 spleens, erosions of the stomach, &c. 



The blood from these tubes was in an advanced stage of putrefaction, 

 and filled with bacteria and micrococcus. 



The bile from the four-year-old steers was normal in appearance ; (hat 

 from the one-year-old animals was very dark and tenacious. Micrococcus 

 was found in each, but not abundant. In each there were found nu)ving 

 rods, (bacteria?) which were somewhat peculiar, one end being bent, 

 forming a little knob or hook. (Coi)i)er plate. Fig. 12.) They were of 

 an orange color, ])robal)ly owing to imbibition of biliary coloring matter. 

 The urine in each set of tubes was found to contain mi(aococcus, 

 bacteria, and cryi)fococcus. 



Experiment 1. — Blood from the first series of tubes was i)laced in 



