TEXAS FEVER. 493 



products as placed on the market will be kept up to standard and 

 that all requirements of the bureau will be observed. Like the home- 

 made dip they all contain sodium arsenit'e as the active tick-killing 

 agent. They do not all contain pine tar, because that substance is 

 difficult to blend into a highly concentrated product, but they all 

 contain some other substance or mixture of substances of such char- 

 acter and in such quantity as field trials have proved will produce the 

 same effects. 



They are not regarded as any more effective or any milder on the 

 cattle than properly prepared homemade dips. None the less they 

 are undoubtedly safer for general use because they offer decidedly 

 fewer opportunities for making mistakes in the quantities used or in 

 the operations gone through and also fewer chances for accidental 

 poisoning or other injury from the handling of powerful chemicals. 

 Whether their higher cost is sufficiently outweighed by these con- 

 siderations is necessarily a matter for individual decision. 



Precautions in the use of arsenic and arsenical dips. — The fact 

 that arsenic is a violent poison is what renders it valuable, for the 

 fever tick is hard to kill. But, like a keen-edged tool, it may be 

 decidedly dangerous if ignorantly or carelessly handled. Three pos- 

 sibilities of danger must be kept constantly in mind ; danger to one- 

 self, danger to other persons, danger to animals. 



The dry, powdered white arsenic should be kept in a tightly cov- 

 ered pail, plainly labeled. Paper bags are unsafe because they easily 

 burst, and arsenic so scattered about looks harmless enough. In 

 weighing or otherwise handling the arsenic avoid raising dust or 

 breathing it in, if raised, and keep it off the skin and clothing. In 

 mixing or boiling stock solutions work only in a well-ventilated 

 place, and on the windward side of the kettle so that steam arising 

 from it will not be inhaled. 



The stock solutions are in some respects more dangerous than the 

 original substance because the ai^senic in them is already in solution 

 and can act very quickly. If any gets on the skin or clothing it 

 must be washed off without delay. Cattle must be kept away from 

 such solutions or from anything that has been in contact with them, 

 for cattle craving salt have been poisoned by licking the outside of 

 leaky barrels and by licking the earth around dipping vats where 

 a little concentrate had been carelessly spilled in charging the vat. 

 All such poisoned earth must be removed, buried, and replaced by 

 fresh. 



Tlie diluted bath is naturally much less dangerous, but no chances 

 can be taken with it. No puddles from which animals may drink 

 should be allowed to accumulate. The persons who do the dipping 

 should not allow the skin or clothing to be wet by the dip any more 

 or any longer than absolutely necessary. When spraying, the opera- 



