Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 27 



other States in a more fatal form. It is characterized by 

 enlarged spleen, profound changes in the blood, escape oJ 

 the blood elements into the substance of the various tissues 

 and with the urine, causing bloody discharges from the 

 kidneys, yellowness of the mucous membranes and fat, 

 ~ great prostration and debility. 



Symptoms. There seems to be an incubation of four or 

 fiye weeks, ending in elevated temperature (103° to 107°) 

 and followed ia five to seven days by duUness, languor, 

 drooping head till the nose reaches the ground, arched 

 back, hind legs advanced under the belly and bent at the 

 fetlocks, cough more or less frequent, muscular trembling 

 about the flanks, jerking of the'neck muscles, heat of horns, 

 ears and general surface (hmbs cold — in exceptional 

 cases) and impaired appetite and rumination. Soon weak^ 

 ness compels lying down, by choice in water, eyes are 

 glassy and fixed, secretions lessened, dung hard and 

 coated with mucus, or with clots of blood, and the urine 

 changes to a deep red or black and coagulates on boiling. 

 The mucous membranes are of a deep yellow or brown, 

 that of the rectum seen in passing dung is of a dark red, 

 as in Rinderpest. 



All these symptoms become aggravated, weakness be- 

 comes extreme, and the patient dies in a state of stupor, 

 or sometimes in convulsions. 



The disease usually passes unnoticed in the Texan cat- 

 tle, but is exceedingly fatal in northern beasts. 



Contagion takes place through the bowel discharges, 

 and roads, pastures, water-courses, etc., become effi- 

 cient bearers of the virus. It is destroyed at once by 

 frost, and has never been satisfactorily demonstrated to be 

 conveyed from one northern animal to another. Sucking 

 calves rarely suffer. One attack does not protect against 

 another. 



Prevention. It should be enforced by United States law 

 that no Gulf-coast cattle should be moved north excepting 

 t^tev the first frosts of autumn, or before the last frosts of 



