DISSEMINATION AND CONTROL OF TEXAS FEVER. 
403 
the first cases occurred in the other lot does not bear against this 
view, since it is a matter of common observation that the disease 
frequently does not occur until a certain season of the year, no 
matter how long the pasture has been infected. Thus, cattle 
taken upon infected pastures in early spring do not as a rule 
show any symptoms of the disease until August, while those put 
upon the same pasture in July very often sicken as soon. So 
that, if each lot had contained one or more animals capable of 
infecting the pastures, it is not surprising that the disease 
occurred about the same time in both cases, though one had been 
upon its pasture a month longer than the other. 
In West Virginia the Southern cattle seem to have been 
divided among a number of farmers, and consequently there must 
have been abundant opportunity for the infection of roads, com¬ 
mons and pastures. While, therefore, the owners of some of the 
diseased native cattle may have believed that these had not been 
upon infected grounds, it is altogether probable that, as has hap¬ 
pened in so many other cases, either the owner was not cognizant 
of all the wanderings of his cattle for the preceding three or 
four weeks, or that grounds which were not suspected had been 
contaminated by the foreign animals. 
I conclude, therefore, that there is not sufficient evidence in 
either of these cases to show that Texas fever is disseminated in 
any other way than by means of the infected roads, yards, or 
pastures; and I insist more particularly upon this point because 
it furnishes the chief indications for the measures to be adopted 
in suppressing such outbreaks. 
WHAT MEASURES SHOULD BE ADOPTED BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES FOR 
SUPPRESSING TEXAS FEVER. 
When such outbreaks occur as have recently become so fre¬ 
quent in the Northern States, by the introduction of Southern 
cattle, it at once becomes a matter for serious consideration with 
the local authorities to decide what regulations should be en¬ 
forced to protect the neighboring cattle from infection. The 
extreme virulence of the disease, and the suddenness with which 
large herds are almost exterminated, makes it seem imperative 
