REPORTS OF CASES. 
219 
would not elevate the tail during defecation. Stocking of the hind 
limbs down to the hoofs was observed in two cases. The appe¬ 
tites had remained fairly good and there was no elevation of 
temperature in the mild cases. Muscular inco-ordination and 
staggering were to be seen. 
One ox fractured the skull by striking the horn while at¬ 
tempting to rise and was killed. Post mortem showed degenera¬ 
tive nephritis, edematous myocitis, splenic engorgement and a 
tarry consistency of the blood, together with urine of high color. 
These cattle were fed exclusively on cottonseed meal, with 
cottonseed hulls as roughage. The meals and hulls were mixed 
in large troughs, to which all the animals had access. The most 
voracious feeders were the ones that became affected. 
In diagnosing these cases due consideration was given to 
such other diseases as might affect* oxen. 
Tick Fever .—No ticks were found. No elevation of tem¬ 
perature. These cattle were raised in the tick-infested locality. 
Black Leg .—These were mature cattle and the swellings pres¬ 
ent contained no> gas. Fever not present. 
Anthrax .—No other affected animals in the locality. Evi¬ 
dence of contagion not present. 
Digestive Disturbances .—No evidence except reduced appe¬ 
tite in the mild cases. 
Unsound Food .—Dairy cows and fattening steers fed from . 
the same source of supply remained healthy. 
I have not been able to find this condition described as af¬ 
fecting oxen in America. Friedberger and Frohner describe it 
as affecting draft oxen in Germany. Perhaps the facts that our 
Northern States are the principal field of observation by Ameri¬ 
can veterinary authors and the difference in the concentrates 
used as a ration for work oxen account for their failure to ob¬ 
serve or describe the disease. In this connection it may be inter¬ 
esting to compare the protein contents of the concentrates fed to 
oxen. Henrv gives them as follows: Corn, 10.5; corn and cob 
meal, 8.5; gluten feed, .24; bran, 15.4; middling, 15.6; oats, 
11.8; oat feed, .16; linseed meal,-33.2; cottonseed meal, 42.3; 
pea meal, 20.2. We observe the extremely high protein content 
of cottonseed meal. 
The causative factor of azoturia or hemoglobinemia in 
horses is understood to be a superabundance of nitrogenous 
food during a short period of idleness. These oxen, accustomed 
to heavv work and a bountiful sunplv of a ration hieh in protein 
and being allowed a short period of rest in a small inclosure, 
