104 
MAD ITCH—ENZOOTIC MENINGITIS. 
The following gives the result of my labors so far. I hope 
to be able to present the profession and the people with some ad¬ 
ditional researches in the near future. 
Historical. 
In November, 1887,<*<1 was called to Huntsville, Randolph 
County, Mo., where cattle on one farm were dying in quick suc¬ 
cession. I found that the proprietor, Mr. James Hammitt, Jr., 
an intelligent young farmer and banker, and his neighbors, had 
already diagnosed the’ disease. It was the well-known (?) mad- 
itch. Five head of cattle were dead, one was convalescent. No 
new cases since forty eight hours or three days. The cattle had 
taken sick in a nice pasture where they had been several months. 
There were and had been no hogs with them, and there were no 
corn cobs or stubble fields to which they had access, (except, of 
course, the unshelled corn on cob). There was nothing, in other 
words, indicating that impaction of the stomach might have ex¬ 
isted and caused mad staggers or dry murrain so called. In the 
West, many stock raisers ascribe the occurrence of mad-itch to 
corn cobs masticated by hogs and then spit out and eaten by 
cattle. The cattle all had access to a good pond of water at a 
short distance from the main field. In this field, however, was 
also a pond, but owing to the excessively dry weather, it had be¬ 
come dry some months* previously and had remained so until 
November, and no cattle could get water in it. A few days before 
the disease started it rained considerably, and this pond was partly 
filled. Then the cattle began to drink in it, instead of going to 
the other already mentioned, which was a little further off. When 
I arrived on the ground it was a few days after this newly filled- 
up pond had frozen all over some inches in thickness. The cattle 
had not been able to drink from it for some days. No more 
cases of sickness had occurred after the frost. 
After taking notes on one carcass and all other material 
points, I waited, for further developments, but nothing of interest 
to me took place. Consequently, I had to postpone my investi¬ 
gations after this very unsatisfactory inspection. In the last days 
of January, 1888, another outbreak occurred at a place called 
Rollinghome in the same county. There, I had much better suc¬ 
cess, but not yet as desired. 
