5l8 CORNSTALK DISEASE IN CATTLE 



pathological point of view, therefore, the term is meaningless, 

 but it has served admirably as a general term to designate cer- 

 tain fatalities occurring under a given condition, which are 

 not easily explained. 



This disease is very insidious, frequently causing the 

 death of animals before its presence is suspected. Cattle that 

 act perfectly well at night are dead on the following morning. 

 Usually all the animals in the herd that die of this affection 

 perish in a single night or at the longest within a few days 

 after the first death occurs. It is generally believed to be in- 

 variably fatal and its symptomatology has not been fully 

 determined. 



§ 405. History. This affection of cattle has been known 

 to exist for man}' years. The time and place of its origin, 

 however, are not known, but it seems to be peculiar to the 

 United States and to have first appeared west of the Alle- 

 gheny Mountains. We are told of its occurrence in the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley fort}' or more years ago. It made extensive 

 ravages in 1864-65 and again in 1868. From an historical 

 standpoint, no positive statements can be made concerning it 

 prior to 1868, when the first recorded investigations into its 

 nature and cause were made. After that time the disease 

 seems to have escaped the attention of investigators until 1889, 

 when Billings, of the Agricultural Experiment Station of 

 Nebraska, published the results of his investigations. 



In 1868, Gamgee was employed by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture to investigate this disease. The 

 "smut theory" of its etiology appears to have been the pre- 

 vailing one at that time and consequently Gamgee's report 

 deals almost exclusivelj' with the effect of improperly prepared 

 food, smuts and the like. Corn smut was unusually abundant 

 in 1868 and he carried out experiments to test its etiological 

 value with the conclusion ' ' that smut is not a very active 

 poison in combination with wholesome food." 



In 1889, Billings described the cornstalk disease as an 

 "acute extraorganismal septicemia, due to micro-organisms 



