480 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



jtiature. Sheds, barns, and stables should i-eceive a thorough applica- 

 tion of quicklime or crude carbolic acid wash after all rubbish has 

 been removed and burned. All animals should be burned or deeply 

 buried and covered well with quicklime. 



SOUTHERN CATTLE FEVER ( TEXAS FEVER) . 

 [Pis. XLVI to LI, inclusive.] 



This disease, which is more commonly known as splenetic, or Texas, 

 fever, is a specific fever communicated by cattle which have recently 

 been moved northward from the infected district, or which is con- 

 tracted by cattle taken into the infected district from other parts of 

 the world. It is characterized by the peculiarity among animal dis- 

 eases that the animals which disseminate the infection are apparently 

 in good health, while those which sicken and die from it do not, as a 

 rule, infect others. 



It is accompanied by high fever, greatly enlarged spleen, destruc- 

 tion of the red-blood corpuscles, escape of the coloring matter of the 

 blood through the kidneys, giving the urine a deep-red color, by a 

 yellowness of the mucous membranes and fat, which is seen more 

 especially in fat cattle, by a rapid loss of strength, and by fatal results 

 in a large proportion of cases. 



This disease has various names in different sections of the country 

 where it frequently appears. It is often called Spanish fever, accli- 

 mation fever, red water, black water, distemper, murrain, dry mur- 

 rain, yellow murrain, bloody murrain, Australian tick fever, and 

 tristeza of South America. 



The earliest accounts we have of this disease date back to 1814, 

 when it was stated by Dr. James Mease, before the Philadelphia 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture, that the cattle fiom a certain 

 district in South Carolina so certainly disease all others with which 

 they mix in their progress to the North that they are prohibited by 

 the people of Virginia from passing through the State; that these 

 cattle infect others while they themselves are in perfect health, and 

 that cattle from Europe or the interior taken to the vicinity of the 

 sea are attacked by a disease that generally proves fatal. Similar 

 observations have been made in regard to a district in the southeiTi 

 part of the United States indicated by the shaded area on the map, 

 Plate LI. The northeiTi limits of this area are changed yearly as a 

 result of the dissemination or eradication of the cattle tick along 

 the border, but the infected area has gradually decreased, owing to 

 the successful endeavors pushed forw ard to eliminate the ticks. 



It was the frerjuent and severe losvses following the driving of cattle 

 fiom the infected district in Texas into and across the Western States 

 and Territories which led to the disease being denominated Texas 

 fever. It is now known, however, that the infection is not peculiar 

 to Texas or even to the United States, but that it also exists in 



