14 
A. A. HOLCOMBE. 
By permission of General Augur, U. S. A., commanding the 
military Department of the Missouri, I reported to you in 
Topeka on the 5th inst., and received verbal instructions to 
proceed to this point without delay. I arrived here on the 6th 
inst., in company with yourself, Col. Win. Simms, Secretary of 
the State Board of Agriculture, and a delegation of citizens 
from Emporia. 
I first inspected the herd of Daniel Keith, located four miles 
northwest, of Neosha Falls, in Coffey County, Kansas. The his¬ 
tory of this herd is as follows : It consists of 120 head, the most 
of which are yearlings, the remainder comprising a few cows 
and two-year old steers. All these animals were picked up in 
the surrounding country last autumn. The last lot of 60 was 
received on Dec, 10th, ’83. All were apparantly well until after 
Christmas. Sometime between the 25th and 31st of December, 
five of the yearlings were seen to be lame, aud to present a more 
or less swelling of the affected feet. A day or two afterwards 
six more were found with similar symptoms. After a time it 
was noticed that the feet affected showed signs of sloughing at 
the coronet or at the fetlock joint. This result was attributed to 
freezing of the diseased members. Notwithstanding the favora- 
ble changes in the weather, the disease continued to spread until 
at the time of my arrival 60 were, or had been, affected. I 
made a critical examination of a large number of both the well 
and the sick. A typical recent case, said to have been sick four 
or five days, was a two-year-old white-faced steer. He presented 
the following symptoms : There was considerable lameness and 
swelling of the right hind foot, which presented a single vesicle 
on the skin at the base of the cleft between the hoofs. I touched 
it with my finger, when the fluid escaped, leaving an oblong super¬ 
ficial ulcer. The foot was hot and tender to pressure, while the 
swelling extended as high as the fetlock joint. The temperature, 
taken in the rectum, was 104 2-5° F. An examination of the 
mouth revealed three small vesicles and one recently formed ul¬ 
cer on the mucous membrane of the lips and gums. 
Another case, said to have beenhiffected about ten days, was 
a red yearling steer, with the right hind foot suppurating at the 
