History, Occurrence, Etiologj\ 7g5 



Holland, Hutyra in Hungary, Nocarcl, later Stockman in England, 

 Bettencourt in Portugal; further Koch in East Africa, Theiler and 

 Hutcheon in South Africa, Stockman in India, Sanarelli and Lignieres 

 in South America, finally Pound and Tidswell in Australia. 



Kossel & Weber (1899) showed further for Finland, and later in 

 association with Schlitz & Miessner (1903) for Germany, that the infec- 

 tion in Europe is transmitted by the Ixodes reduvius. These same 

 authors, as well as Smith & Kilborne, and also Lignieres before them, 

 have suggested a satisfactory method of immunization for the practice. 



Occurrence. The disease occurs usually in the form of an 

 enzootic in the spring and in the summer in certain localities, 

 especially in marshy and forest pastures, whereas in the cold 

 periods, and during stable feeding it occurs only exceptionally. 

 The so-called forest disease (hemoglobinuria), which was for- 

 merly attributed to the ingestion of various plants," especially 

 to those containing turpentine, and which was accepted as an 

 intoxication caused by resinous substances (turpentine), is 

 identical with the disease is question. 



According to general experience older cattle become usually 

 affected, and the disease sometimes causes very decided losses 

 among the improperly wintered cattle of poor owners. 



The disease causes great losses in Germany, especially in those localities in 

 the northern part, where, as a rule, all animals are pastured, and among these 

 in unfavorable years an emjihatic decimation of the animals may result. It occurs 

 especially frequently in Prussia and Oldenburg, then in Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, 

 Baden, Hessen, Mecklenburg, Braunischweig and in the imperial domains, but it is 

 also observed as a permanent disease of spring and summer in other localities in 

 marshy and moorland pastures. 



In Roumania it occurs most destructively in the inundated territories of the 

 Danube Delta, where the disease in some years causes a loss of 30,000 to 50,000 

 cattle. 



In Hungary the "forest disease" prevails, especially in the mountainous 

 regions of northern Hungary and Transylvania and occurs there in some localities 

 almost every spring; it has also been observed in the southern part of the country. 



Texas fever has for a long time been known in America around the sea-girt 

 portions of Mexico; in the middle of the last century the disease was introduced 

 to the United States with herds driven from Texas, and while it showed in its 

 original home a very mild course, in the North it caused enormous losses among 

 the native cattle, the money value of which has been estimated in some years as 

 $2,000,000. In the northern part of South America it also causes periodically 

 great losses, especially among imported cattle. It also occurs as a dangerous 

 disease in India (Schein observed it there also among buffaloes), in Central and 

 South Africa, further in Australia, where it was introduced by American cattle. 



Etiology. The cause of the disease, the Piroplasma bigemi- 

 num (Babesia bovis, Pirosoma bigem., Apiosoma bigem., 

 Ixidioplasma bigem.), occurs in the blood of febrile cattle, 

 mostly inside of red blood corpuscles, more rarely on their 

 surface, or free in the blood plasma. The parasites are found 

 either singly as roundish bodies of 1-2 ^ diameter which in a 

 fresh state show ameboid movements, or in pairs in which 

 case the somewhat larger, non-motile, and pear-shaped para- 

 sites (pirum = pear) frequently hang together with their 

 elongated ends in a straight line, or at an angle (Fig. 128 on 

 p. 760 and Fig. 130). Smaller diplococcus-like, as well as 



