TEXAS FEVER. 473, 



SOUTHERN CATTLE FEVER (TEXAS FEVER, TICK FEVER). 



[ris. XLIV-XLIX.] 



This disease, which is more commonly known as Texas fever, and 

 sometimes as splenetic fever, is a specific fever communicated by cattle 

 which have recently been moved northward from the infected dis- 

 trict; it is also contracted by cattle taken into the infected district 

 from other parts of the world. It is characterized by the peculiarity 

 ,imong animal diseases that the animals which disseminate the in- 

 fection are apparently in good health, while those which sicken and 

 die from it do not, as a rule, infect others. 



It is accompanied with high fever, gi-eatly 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, with a 

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

 especially in fat cattle, by a rapid loss of strength, and with 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 181-1, 

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

 Society for Promoting Agriculture, that the cattle from 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 southern 

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

 Plate L. The northern 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 forward to eliminate the ticks. 



It was the frequent and severe losses following the driving of cattle 

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

 and Territories which led to the disea-c 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 

 southern Europe, Central and South America, Australia, South 

 Africa, and the West Indies. 



