4 
THE OX—-MISCELLANEOUS DISORDERS AND INJURIES. 281 
may be putin a large open vessel and be held under the nose so the animal 
will inhale it. SyzalZ doses of the same acid diluted may be given in- 
‘ternally, especially in severe cases, and will be very beneficial. At the 
‘same time the heavy oil of tar should be sprinkled freely about the yard, 
as it contains a large percentage of carbolic acid. Give a low diet of soft 
mashes throughout, and return slowly to the regular food when recovery 
begins. Insure plenty of outdoor air, salt and water. For other remedies and 
the general care for diseased animals, one may select from those given 
under European Rinderpest, according to the symptoms, though it is 
believed that carbolic acid is the best of all. As a preventive, the heavy 
oil of tar or carbolic acid, copiously sprinkled around the yard or stable, 
will usually prove very beneficial, and such precaution should be taken 
whenever it is thought that cattle have been exposed to the disease. 
This dreadful malady originates chiefly in the district near the Gulf of 
Mexico and is conimunicated to Northern cattle by herds which are brought 
from those sections. It has been known in the North asa very virulent and 
fatal disease from the time that cattle were first brought from those gulf- 
districts. Confusion has often arisen because of the various names by which 
it has been known at different times, as bloody murrain, yellow murrain, 
‘dry murrain, distemper, black-water, red-water, American cattle plague or 
rinderpest, gastric, splenic, period, acclimating, Spanish and ‘Texas fever. 
Indeed, many cases of loss by death have been attributed to murrain and 
other disorders when Texas fever has been the real trouble, and this confu- 
sion calls for a special regard to the following considerations: /7rst, infected 
cattle from the South may show no patent signs of the disease and yet 
healthy cattle will become most fatally infected by contact with the yards, 
fields, bedding, cars, troughs, scales, etc., which the diseased cattle have 
visited; second, Northern cattle are carelessly purchased in the markets, in 
warm weather, after they have been exposed therein to the virus left by the 
Southern cattle, and are then taken to farms for grazing, only to be attacked 
with Texas fever, and then die with what the farmer will mistake for another 
disease; but, zhzrd, while infected Southern cattle will communicate the 
scourge, with most disastrous results, to Northern cattle, the latter, when so 
infected, do not transmit it to others—that is, the virus loses its potency in 
cone remove from the Southern cattle. Hence, it is never safe to buy cattle in 
the market for grazing during warm weather, for one can not be sare that 
they have not been exposed to the poison of infected animals from the South. 
A hard freeze will render the virus harmless, and any inclosures, roads, 
cars, etc., in which infected Southern cattle have been can not be used with 
impunity until after the following winter. They should, so far as possibic, 
be scrupulously closed against other cattle until that time, and it is better to 
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