344 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



mediate death. In 1849 two men contracted the disease from skinning a heifer, 

 and they died. In 1850 it spread into the townships of Liverpool, following the cow 

 pastures to the southward. There one man contracted the disease from skinning 

 a bullock, and died. Sheep were seized with it and died, as did, also, the shep- 

 herds who skinned them. As to the cause of the disease at that time, it was dis- 

 covered to "be most deadly and fatal in damp, marshy soil, and lands poorly drained; 

 and during hot seasons. It not unfrequently happened that the first appearance 

 of the disease was not discovered until several of the aniaials were dead. They 

 were seen apparently healthy in the morning, and dead by noon. The symptoms 

 first presenting themselves were sudden uneasiness. They were excited, eyes prom- 

 inent, colicky pains, urine high colored and tinged with blood, also the feces, back 

 arched, very weak, and stood leaning against anything near them ; pulse weak, 

 hard, feeble and small; breathing accelerated. The animal soon drops, and is 

 seized with convulsive twitchings, froth issued from the nostrils, and death closed 

 the scene, the disease lasting from four to twenty-four hours. Post-mortem exam- 

 ination revealed the spleen of a deep, dark red color, and swollen to three or four 

 times its natural size, weighing from three to four pounds; all the stomach found 

 healihy, except the true digestive stomach, which showed a general redness. The 

 kidneys were dark colored, and occasionally a considerable quantity of serum 

 found in the pericardium. Treatment was not satisfactory, no matter what kind 

 pursued. The best preventive measures adopted were low diet, active exercise, 

 purgatives, and neutral salts in the water to drink. And to show you the resem- 

 blance of this splenic fever or apoplexy of Euro^je has to our Texas fever, we 

 will compare it with the outbreaks in this country. 



In 179G there was an outbreak of cattle disease in Pennsylvania, attributed to 

 infection from a drove of cattle brought from South Carolina in the month of 

 August. There was a weakness of the limbs, inability to stand, and when they fell 

 they would tremble and groan violently. Bloody urine was discharged ; bowels 

 costive; kidney found, on post-mortem examination, inflamed (but no mention 

 made of the spleen or notice taken of it at tliat time). Since that time there has 

 been many outbreaks in many of the Southern States, invariably in the summer 

 mf)nths. These outbreaks were characterized by weakness of the limbs, constipa- 

 tion, bloody urine, drooping of the head, and lopping of the ears. Post-mortem 

 revealed the spleen the most conspicuously diseased organ, as was also the kidneys.' 

 It would be useless to go on and recite the many outbreaks from that time on, 

 but the ones of most note occurred in 18t)6, '67 and '68, when Texas cattle were 

 carried into the herd-growing sections of the West. In the stock-yards of Chicago, 

 in 1868, 161 animals perished in a few days, 926 in a single township, and 400 on a 

 single farm contracted the disease and died, and to Dr. Salmond, of the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry, who deserves credit for his deep researches into the history of the 

 disease, we are indebted for the appearance of the spleen. He says it was the 

 organ, beyond all others, which suffered in Texas fever. He described it in one cow 

 as weighing five and three-fourths pounds, and associated with bloody serum in the 

 pericardium. In two others it weighed five pounds, and four others between three 

 and four pounds. Here is where we get the great resemblance to splenic apoplexy 

 in European cattle. 



