miles north of this place with other beef cattle) began dying, and up to date 8 have succumbed. I do not know how many cattle west of here have died, but understand that all of the natives exposed in any way to the Texas bunch driven from here have been lost. None of the Texas lot have died. All of my examinations of the living sick animals, as well as the many autopsies. I have made, have given me no room to doubt this malady as being what is known as southern coast, or Texas cattle fever, but I was in total darkness as to what the trouble really was-its true pathology, its cause, and its best treatment, until the 8th instant. At that time I carefully dissected a large, fat, red steer which had died a few hours previous. Do not understand me to assert that I have learned it all by this examination, for I simply learned then that previous examinations had taught me nothing. In some post-mortems the manifold was in a perfect normal condition; in others its contents were very hard and dry. In all I found the urine highly colored, and in some it looked as though it might be half blood. The kidneys, in some cases, seemed in a high state of congestion, and in others putrefaction was rapidly advancing. The liver was enlarged, congested, and engorged with bile. The gall-bladder was greatly distended, with a ropy, thick, dark matter, in some almost black, in others not so dark, yet in all lumpy and resembling thick molasses or soft soap. The spleen in the steer referred to was greatly enlarged and filled with semi-coagulated blood. The duodenum was engorged with duodenal matter, very heavily charged with bile. Such was the condition of things, roughly given, as they appeared to the natural eye; but not being satisfied with these examinations I decided to make a chemical and microscopical examination and send you the results. I took the weight of the spleen, which was 10 pounds. Then I placed in clean separate bottles a small piece of the spleen, liver, kidneys, and a small quantity of the bile and urine. These I brought home and analyzed chemically and microscopically, with the following results: Urine loaded with albumen; kidneys simply in a high state of inflammation, with an occasional spot of decay. A peculiarity of the spleen is that there seems nothing wrong with it save its enormous enlargement. It seems to be filled to its utmost capacity with semi-coagulated blood, which presents under the microscope nothing more than an engorgement, with both red and white blood globules, the red greatly predominating. The liver was enlarged, congested, and thoroughly saturated with bile. The bile was filled with serum. It was hard to determine which was the smaller ingredient, bile or serum. Now what must we conclude from this examination? Certainly that the trouble is not in the spleen, but in the liver or the portal circulation, and the trouble with the kidneys, spleen, and other organs is nothing more than we would expect from overtaxation, because of the liver not being able to do its part. In my opinion this disease is much like "dengue" (breakbone fever), or yellow fever in the human race, and, treated as such, I believe a great deal of good may be done.

In the latter part of September a number of letters were received from cattle growers in the vicinity of Middleburgh, Va., stating that a fatal disease was prevailing among cattle in that locality which it was feared was contagious pleuro-pneumonia. Dr. C. K. Dyer, an inspector of the Bureau of Animal Industry, was directed to make an examination of the afflicted animals and report the results of his investigation to the Department. His report bears date of October 1, and is as follows:

In my investigations of this outbreak I learned that on the 14th day of September Mr. E. T. Holton purchased, at the Chicago stock-yards, of Messrs. Wagoner & Bender (cattle brokers for Messrs. Conover & Herrick), 134 steers; that they were shipped from there and arrived at Summit Point three days after (September 17), and were then driven about 35 miles to the farms of the following-named gentlemen in this locality, viz: E. T. Holton, Fauquier County, 2 steers, both of which died in a few days; W. N. Tiffany, same county, 37 steers, 7 of which have since died and 3 are now sick; Hugh Tiffany, same county, 15 steers, 3 of which have died and 2 are now sick; Frank Ish, Loudoun County, 20 steers, of which 1 is sick; William Humphrey and Edgar Ish, both of Loudoun County, 30 steers each. Six animals on the above-mentioned farms were suffering with mild attacks of Texas fever, and would likely recover. No native cattle had been attacked.

An outbreak of southern cattle fever, notable for its destruction of valuable animals, occurred in the vicinity of Richmond, Va., during the latter part of September and the early part of October. W. H.

Harbaugh, resident veterinarian of Richmond, furnished the Department with the following history of the disease on October 9:

For a month past there have been numerous deaths in this vicinity among the cattle from what is commonly called "bloody murrain" or "red water." My business partner and myself have been consulted professionally in a few cases only. An outbreak occurred in the Westham herd of fine Jersey cattle, the property of Col. R. Snowden Andrews, at the Westham Granite Company's farm, about seven miles from Richmond, in Chesterfield County. I was called to the farm, and found a cow dying, and from the symptoms furnished me I suspected the nature of the trouble. I inserted the catheter and withdrew seven quarts of very dark-colored urine. This animal died within an hour after my arrival, while in a semi-comatose state. I was informed that a cow had died the day before showing similar symptoms. I prescribed treatment and left. About a week afterwards I was again called to the same farm, and when I arrived was informed that a cow had died about fifteen minutes before my arrival. This animal I discovered to be one from which I had removed the placenta on my former visit, she having had a premature birth. At that time she exhibited no symptoms of Texas fever. A few days afterwards (six days) I was again called, and found two of the cattle in a critical condition, one of which was the celebrated "Oxford Kate," which cost Colonel Andrews $3,250. I again examined the herd and found more affected. The temperature of the affected cattle ranged from 108° Fahrenheit (Oxford Kate) down to 104° Fahrenheit. The pulse ranged from 90 to 100. The animals lost flesh very rapidly; would stand with arched backs, staring eyes; would pass quantities of urine, varying in color in the different animals, from light red to black; would not stand long at a time, but preferred to lie down. Oxford Kate was loose in a box stall, and toward the last, when she was so weak that it was difficult for her to assume the standing posture, she would struggle from a bed of nice clean straw back to the paved floor, which was wet with urine, and lie there in preference. She died at 9.45 p. m. October 6. The post-mortem examination commenced the following morning at 8. As the hide was being removed the fat was observed to possess a peculiar glistening greenish tinge. Mr. Phillips, the foreman, very appropriately remarked: "It looks something like the greenish color in a copper boiler." In cutting through the inferior cervicle muscles to remove the side a most sickening odor was emitted. The cut surfaces were a very dark color. A noticeable absence of blood in all the vessels was not to be overlooked; ecchymosis was observed in the cavities of the heart. The lungs were normal, except a certain amount of hypostatic congestion of the right lung, which was easily accounted for, as she was lying on that side when she died. There was ecchymosis beneath the parietal and visceral pleura-a few spots only. The spleen was much thickened and elongated, and the greatest care had to be taken in tearing it loose from its attachment to the rumen and diaphragm, as it burst in several places, from which matter resembling" whipped" coagulated blood oozed out. The liver was enlarged and parts of it congested; when cut into it was of a dull, yellowish, coppery color; the cut surfaces, after being exposed for a few minutes, assumed a bright yellow color. The gall bladder was distended, with a thick, dark, semi-fluid granular looking matter, resembling much the dregs of a "black strap" molasses barrel. The rumen contained less than the ordinary amount of ingesta; the walls of the viscus seemed normal. Nothing abnormal was noticed in connection with the reticulum. The omassum was normal; the ingesta between the leaves was moist. The abomassum contained very little ingesta, which was washed off to expose the mucous membrane; parts of the mucous membrane were dark colored; there were upon it many red and "angry " looking spots and numerous ulcers, which, to a person who has seen the ulcers in the nostrils of a glandered horse, could not help being struck with the similarity; many spots could be seen on the lamellar folds of the membrane; not a few large ragged-edged ulcers were observed in the pyloric portion; some were oblong and some were quadrilateral in outline, the edges dark colored and even blackened, and gave one the impression that the membrane had been removed in patches with a very dull instrument-" sawed out," as it were. The external appearance of the intestines was dark; they contained much blood of a very frothy nature and of a sero-sanguineous consistence; the mucous membrane was easily scraped off with the finger nail. The urinary bladder contained a sedimentary deposit of a dull leaden hue, nothing like the appearance of the claret-colored urine she had been passing previous to her death. On the mucous membrane were clusters of red-crested, papilla-like elevations. The kidneys were very dark-colored, much congested, the corticle substance friable, and upon close examination dark spots could be detected beneath the capsule. The right, always the largest, was inore than a third larger than the left. The uterus contained a four months old fetus.

As I held a post-mortem examination on the second cow that died I was confirmed in my diagnosis, and am perfectly satisfied that that of Oxford Kate was correct, Oxford Kate was a famous animal, and had a record of thirty-nine pounds twelve ounces of butter in a week.

SOUTHERN CATTLE FEVER-THE PERMANENTLY INFECTED LINE.

Referring to the investigations of this Department relative to the territory permanently infected with southern cattle fever, Mr. William King Kendall, of Tilden, Tex., writing under date of September 25 last, says:

A copy of the Agricultural Report for 1885 has been received, for which please accept my thanks. In offering thanks for this kindness, you will pardon me for referring to a subject of very great moment to the live-stock industry of this State, and one that I am pleased to see has been treated very exhaustively and fairly in the report before me. I refer to that of Texas or splenic fever of cattle. It is quite evident to every intelligent mind that no arbitrary line, based upon any defined degree of latitude or longitude, can be drawn defining the infected and noninfected sections of the State. This can only be determined after years of careful investigation. With a view of adding my mite toward the ascertainment of such facts, I am constrained to address you upon the subject. I believe the Department has done all that was possible under the circumstances to ascertain the nature of the malady, as well as the extent of the affected territory, and that in so doing it has been actuated by the best of motives-the public good.

Before proceeding to a discussion of the subject, however, I desire to disclaim any personal interest in range cattle. I would further state that I am not of those who unreasonably contend, against well-established facts, that no such disease exists in the State of Texas, but, on the contrary, think it quite likely that the entire section contiguous to the sea-board is permanently infected. Being thoroughly acquainted with that section, as well as with the southern half of the State, I am led to believe that the disease prevails farther inland in the eastern than in the western section of the State. I reach this conclusion from two reasons: First, from the fact that the low, level plains bordering the coast extend farther inland in the former than in the latter section; secondly, because the climate, geography, and vegetation of the two sections are radically different, and much certainly depends, in determining this matter, upon altitude and climate. There is still another fact I desire to state in this connection, which appears to me to demand more than a passing consideration, and it is a fact so universally recognized by all intimately acquainted with the live stock of the coast country that no one will be found to deny the statement. For thirty years I was a resident of the coast, and during that time was engaged in breeding native cattle upon the range, and was thus offered every facility for making observations. From the earliest settlement of that section to the present time a malady has prevailed among the cattle of that region locally known as murrain. The loss from this disease is much greater than is generally supposed or admitted. Upon one occasion I had a small herd in an inclosure, and the loss from the first of March to the following November aggregated just 10 per cent.; and I am persuaded, after many years of close observation, that the annual loss from this disease alone will not fall short of 5 per cent. When compared with the estimated losses of range cattle from all causes as usually published, this statement seems alarming; but it should be borne in mind that these estimates are absurdly inaccurate and misleading. By reference to Youatt and other veterinary authorities I find no similarity between this so-called murrain and that known to veterinary science, but do find a very close similitude between the symptoms of this malady and that of Texas or splenic fever as described by veterinarians. Again, it is a well-known fact that the liver of all cattle over one year of age throughout the coast country is more or less affected, showing lesions in this organ to a greater or less extent. After a residence of nine years in this country I never knew or heard of a case of this so-called murrain where the liver and other organs were found, upon examination, in a normal condition.

In conclusion, I would most respectfully submit that I am under the impression that the line suggested by the Department in the report before me, locating the infected district, will be found upon further investigation to be but partially correct. It is my impression, based upon the facts above cited, that a line beginning at Laredo, or perhaps farther south on the Rio Grande, and bearing eastward sufficiently to include a greater portion of Duval, and perhaps the entire county of Mc

Mullen, and a portion, if not all, of Atascosa County north of the dead-line, and thence converging until it should intercept the designated line northeast of San Antonio, would embrace all additional territory free from the fear of infection in the State of Texas.

Mr. S. P. Goodwin, of Savannah, Ga., referring to the permanently infected region of southern cattle fever, as pointed out in previous reports of the Bureau of Animal Industry, in a letter of recent date, addressed to Dr. D. E. Salmon, says:

I see by the maps that Georgia lies entirely within the permanently infected region, or almost so, as also does South Carolina. Such being the case, it would seem to be an easy matter to remove cattle from one part of the State to another without danger of fever. It is not so, however, for cattle brought to the coast belt from the region of Atlanta and Athens, in this State, from Charlotte, N. C., and as far south as Greenville, S. C., invariably die within a few months. It is an exception where one lives through the following summer after arrival. Milch cows brought here from Atlanta can not be sold at all if it is known they are from that point. It does seem there is less danger in bringing cattle here from any point along the coast belt as far north as Long Island than there is in a few hundred miles in the interior. For that reason I must think there is a coast belt region which has been overlooked. I have been trying some time to acclimate a Jersey bull, and lost three before I succeeded in bringing one through the summer. There is only one way to do it, and that is to bring them here in the fall, at six or eight months old, and the following summer feed them on laxative food, and not expose them to the sun at all. The Holstein appears to do better here than the Jersey. Of quite a number brought here there have been few deaths in acclimating.

ANTHRAX AND CHARBON.

Dr. L. E. Rockwell, of Amenia, N. Y., writing under date of January 27, 1886, thus speaks of an outbreak of anthrax among cattle in that locality:

Another outbreak of anthrax, or splenic apoplexy, has occurred in our town, this time at R. R. Thompson's. Four years ago the disease appeared in the herd of Frank Bayliss, 2 miles east of Amenia.

A supposed outbreak of anthrax occurred in a herd of cattle belonging to C. Hibbard & Son, of Bennington, Shiawassee County, Mich., in January last. On the 15th of April Hon. H. H. Hinds, president of the Michigan Live Stock Sanitary Commission, wrote the Department, giving an account of the outbreak, and inclosed the reports of Prof. E. A. Grange, State veterinarian, and William Japling, veterinary surgeon, of Owasso, Mich. The report of the former, which was made to the Live Stock Sanitary Commission on the 9th of April, is as follows:

On the 26th of February last I was requested to examine some cattle belonging to Messrs. Hibbard & Son, Shorthorn breeders, of Bennington, Mich., which were said to be suffering from some new disease. On my arrival at night I found one animal (an ox) dead. Being late in the evening a post-mortem was deferred until morning, when autopsy revealed the following lesions: Beginning with the muzzle I found the skin upon the upper lip much abraded, exhibiting very angry looking sores, with evidence of considerable ante-mortem discharge from the nose. Examination of the nasal chambers showed the mucous membrane to be of a reddishpurple hue, with pus distributed along their course. Continuing, I found the mucous membranes of the larynx, trachia, and bronchial tubes highly injected. After having observed the lesions in the air passages, my attention was next directed to the alimentary canal, the mucous membrane of most parts of which presented a decided blush. The accessary organs of digestion (liver, spleen, and pancreas) did not present any marked deviation from health; the feces were normal. I then proceeded to make an examination of the urinary organs, and on making sections of the kidneys I found the mucous membranes of the uriniferous tubes in a highly injected condition. In the urine bladder was found a considerable quantity of a jelly-like mass, highly covered with blood, the mucous membrane of which was extensively covered with petechial spots. Examination of the brain did not reveal anything peculiar.

On my arrival in the evening, in addition to the dead ox, I was shown a heifer in the same stable decidedly sick, and upon examination I found a profuse discharge of tears from the eyes; nostrils injected; ears drooping; temperature about 106° F.; respiration much accelerated; pulse, say, 80 per minute; appetite little affected; bowels almost normal; urine natural. Next morning the animal seemed somewhat worse, and going from bad to worse, day by day, Mr. Hibbard killed it about the sixth day.

From what I saw, and from the history of the disease given me by Dr. Jopling, of Owasso, and Mr. Hibbard, in those animals which had died some time previous to my visit, I diagnosed the disease as "malignant catarrhal fever," but am somewhat at a loss to account for the cause of the complaint, as my brief investigation failed to discover anything in the sanitary condition of the premises, care, and management of the animals, or other circumstance which I could say was the cause of the disease. I stated to Mr. Hibbard that I did not think the malady was of a contagious nature, and its behavior since then would appear to confirm that opinion.

The following is the report made by Dr. Jopling on the history of this outbreak and the characteristics of the disease:

Case No. 1.-On the 26th day of January, 1886, I was called to see a thoroughbred heifer nearly a year old which had been sick for two days. Upon arriving at the farm, some 4 miles distant, I found her suffering from spasms, during which she would fall down and appear as if about to die, but would recover in a few minutes and get on her feet again. I found her temperature 106° F.; pulse very quick and weak; respiration about 40; visible mucous membranes reddened; a free discharge from nose and eyes, and traces of blood in the urine. She lived some ten or twelve hours from the time I first saw her. She had repeated spasms or convulsions until she died.

The post-mortem examination showed that the mucous membranes were the principal seat of disease. They were of a purplish red color, with slight ulcerations in the mouth and fauces. A part of the muzzle sloughed off. The mucous membranes of both the respiratory and digestive tracts were involved throughout. The lungs were slightly inflamed. The right side of the heart was distended with blood, and the opposite side empty. The spleen was slightly enlarged, and the mucous membrane of the bladder somewhat inflamed. These are the post-mortem lesions, as near as I can recollect them. Owing to the fact that aconite had been freely administered in the early stage of the disease, and not being able to account for the symptoms presented and the post-mortem appearances in a better way, I attributed it to an overdose of this medicine.

Case No. 2.-A grade heifer, coming two years old, was taken sick three weeks after the first one died. She died inside of three days, showing symptoms exactly similar to those seen in the first case. I did not see this animal, but Mr. Hibbard held a post-mortem examination, and said that the appearance seemed to be the same as in the previous one.

Had

Case No. 3.-An ox, ten years old, was taken sick on the 24th of February. eaten his feed as usual the previous night, and was found sick in the morning. I arrived there six or eight hours from the time he was first known to be sick, and found the symptoms as follows: Temperature, 107° F.; pulse, 80; respiration about 40; a free discharge from the eyes, and eyelids swollen; an abundant discharge from the nostrils also; urine bloody and passed frequently. As the disease advanced the symptoms became more aggravated. The temperature increased a little during the first day, and then decreased a little. The pulse got weaker and more frequent, and the discharge from the eyes and nose more profuse. The mouth was very sore and ulcerated. The muzzle sloughed off, and the animal before death presented an unsightly appearance. Professor Grange, State veterinarian, was present when the animal died. The post-mortem appearances were similar to those described in the first case. The mucous membrane seemed to be the principal seat of the disease. Case No. 4.-A grade heifer, rising two years old, which had aborted some four weeks previous. She was taken sick on the 26th day of February, and died within a few days. In this case the owner said that while withdrawing the milk a short time previous to death the skin peeled off the teats; otherwise the symptoms werɔ the same as in the other cases. No post-mortem was made.

Case No. 5.-An ox (mate to one previously mentioned) was taken sick on the 2d day of April, and died within three days. I did not see this animal, and no postmortem examination was made.

In conclusion, I might state that the first animal taken sick was in stables about one-half mile distant from the others, while all stood in the same stable side by side. They were all very fleshy. In no case was there any cough, notwithstanding the great degree of bronchial irritation.

H. Mis. 156—19