222 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



hard, insensible, and of a light color, tinged with pink and yellow. It 

 seemed to be a circumscribed gangrene of the mucous membrane, the 

 dead parts being partially decolorized by soaking in the fluids of the 

 mouth. 



There was also an evident irritation of the mucous membrane of the 

 posterior parts of the alimentary canal and organs of generation. 

 That covering the rectum and vagina was generally red, covered with 

 mucus, and presented spots denuded of the epithelium. In Missouri 

 six cases of abortion in cows were reported, and in Illinois there were 

 many cases of abortion and difficult parturition with mares. 



The constitutional symptoms were not very marked. The temperature 

 of the animals which I examined was about normal, with the exception 

 of a few from which one or more limbs were sloughing and with which 

 there was suspicion of septic poisoning. Drs. Hoi combe and Trum- 

 bower observed high temperatures (104 to 104.8 degrees) in some cases 

 in the early stages of the affection. 



In those animals which recovered after showing lameness there was 

 no loss of substance or inflammation of the skin as would have resulted 

 from freezing to a sufficient depth to cause lameness. In these animals 

 the lameness and stillness of the lower joints were the only symptoms 

 of the disease in the feet, though the same animals frequently showed 

 erosions in the mouths. 



EVIDENCE POINTING TO ERGOT AS THE CAUSE. 



In each of the herds which I visited, with the single exception of 

 Beard's, there were typical cases of dry gangrene of the extremities, 

 with an evident preference for the posterior limbs. In the most severe 

 cases there was complete death of the leg as high as the middle por- 

 tion of the metatarsal bone. This dead part was sharply defined, 

 first by a constriction and later by a crack from the living flesh above. 

 It was not a death of the superficial structures alone, but the skin, 

 tendons, and bone were all involved, and every part of the leg be- 

 low the line of separation just referred to was completely lifeless. A 

 study of these legs showed very clearly that the disease had not begun 

 at the hoof or in the interdigital space and progressed upward, for these 

 parts had not been changed by disease of any kind previous to the death 

 of the whole affected part, which had evidently occurred very suddenly. 

 To my mind this condition made it very plain that the trouble was not 

 the result of any disease which had begun in the interdigital space, or 

 in the skin around the coronet. There could be no mistaking the fact 

 that the worst affected animals presented typical cases of dry gangrene, 

 and the problem to be solved was to determine which of the conditions 

 that these animals were subjected to would satisfactorily account for the 

 enzootic. When we turn to veterinary literature for information in re- 

 gard to the accepted causes of dry gangrene, we learn that there are 

 very few agencies which are liable to affect a number of animals at a 

 time and are capable of producing this effect. Compression, burning, 

 caustics^ plugging of blood-vessels, and ergot about completes the list 

 of those that would be at all likely to produce dry gangrene in young 

 animals, and of these the last is the only one that could have possibly 

 been instrumental in developing the outbreaks in the West. 



The peculiarities of the disease led me to examine the feed to learn if 

 any unusual quantity of ergot could be found. The result of this ex- 

 amination was to show that at every one of the farms where the dis- 

 eased cattle were located, hay had been fed which contained one or 



