TEXAS FEVER. 
273 
blood in order to have it analyzed through some one else, but have not 
since succeeded in obtaining any. 
• The progress of this disease is a speedy one, the majority expiring 
within two and a half and four days ; in exceptional cases they may 
linger for seven and eight days. The course seems to be governed by 
the variation of temperature ; I, at least, observed that those attacked 
in the months of July and August took a more rapid termination than 
those taken sick in September. 
Etiology. —Some individuals claim that this is a mystery ; others 
assert that it is originated by direct contagion communicated by cattle 
transported from the Gulf regions, but cases have come under my ob¬ 
servation in which I was unable to trace any contagion, and by all 
appearances assumed the character of a spontaneous origin, for which 
reason I cannot agree with the aforesaid assertion unconditionally, 
although we have sufficient proof that cattle running at large, or in pas¬ 
ture where they may come in contact with the Texas cattle, are more 
readily exposed to infection than those kept in stables, and from May 
until October exclusively, and less in wet than in dry seasons, when the 
scarcity of fresh, good water compels them to quench their thirst with 
stagnant water, numberless infusoria and other ingredients deleterious 
to health are conveyed to the system in this way, the result of which is 
a contamination of the chyme, whose composition besides the withered 
grass consists of non-nutritious and even toxic vegetation (as they de¬ 
sire to refresh themselves with something cool and juicy will eat plants 
and drink water which at other times they would refuse), thereby infect¬ 
ing the alimentary canal and its associate organs. The injurious effects 
do not confine themselves to the vascular system alone, but also the 
functions of the adenotomic organs in the abdominal cavity, which are 
very instrumental in the formation and purification of the blood, will 
get impaired as soon as these obnoxious ingredients arrive for trans¬ 
formation or elimination, causing detrimental results not only to the 
glands themselves, but to the whole vital organism, which may, under 
favorable terms, be sufficient to develop an infectious germ giving im¬ 
pulse to spontaneous cases which (companions living under the same 
hygienic condition are prepared to adopt) multiply and disseminate the 
virus wherever they arrive amidst the mature bovine inhabitants of the 
hills, as well as low lands, valleys, creek and river precincts, and par¬ 
ticularly those districts influenced by the tide. 
Whether the infective principle is fixed or volatile, and what its 
modus operandi is, remains to be ascertained yet. Considering the local- 
