The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-08-18
The Cattle Plague.

We know nothing that may be compared
with the fuss made over the recent cattle
plague, and the little that the fuss-makers
know about it, save the hullaballoo that
cattle themselves make over the blood that
stains the ground where an OK has been re-
Gently slaughtered!
1t is now stated that western droyers have
come to the conclusion g that those who
shave watched the plague from its first ap-
"pearance know almost nothing of lts
character or origin"
The Texas cattle were charged with bring
ing it from Texas; not as disease of Their
o,on-they did not die; but they were SAID
to bring it in their intestines, and that they
dropped it in their faces ss they travelled,
to infect other cattle that it consisted OF
poisonous and tender plants growing IN
Texas, which did not poison the cattle there !;
1--WE suppose because they "got used 10
them i'') but the bare exhalations from the
digested fibre of them became deadly poison
to cattle raised north of the Ohio
What stuff! The poor cattle leaving Texas
would cross the Ohio with precious little IN
their intestines of that they had cropped In
their native fields
Then it was sold that, save an enlarged
liver and some intestinal lrrltation' 'here
seemed to be no presence OF disease. Inc
flesh of the dead animals seemed to be neal
thy. Professor GAMGEE, of Chicago, (pro-
lessor CANNON, we suspect } said it was
perfectly sound, and might be eaten. Well,
he could eat it if he pleased, but nobody else
would.
So that here is disease so strange that
nobody knows anything about it. 1t does
not appear to affect the vital parts as as
case ordinarily does; and experts are pal
fled to know what it is. Certainly 1t ID the
result of some sudden exhaustion, which
produces death without the usual signs OF
organic arrangement.
We do not pretend to know anything ABOUT
it ourselves, but we do know that the cruel
mode of transporting cattle on railroads
may produce death exactly in that mode;
and when we remember that the recent
very hot weather greatly aggravated the
distress and suffering of cattle packed in
cars, and transported hundreds of miles
without food or water, we should not be at
MI surprised that number of deaths took
place among them.
Whe Their that be the cause or not of all
the deaths that have taken place, 1t is be-
yond question the cause of many, and may
the fevered and exhausted cattle
failing from the effects Of that treatment
O disease to others. The
fetid breath of an exhausted and fevered
animal is well calculated to sicken those in
haling it.
So here is great evil which cannot be
denied. And as no cause can be assigned
for what is called the plague, with its
strange and unprecedented symptoms, in
the name of common sense why do not
the press and the health officers direct their
attention to this patent and Well-knoWn
grievance .....
We say that vast number of animals
that are unfit for market or for anybody to
are made so by the present sys-
tenn of railroad transportation-are killed
in every city. This cannot be denied. And
the health of oil great cities demands that
there shall be reform in the railroad
regulations for the transportation of cattle.
Why is not that demand made now, when,
from the hot weather, o long-continued
grievance has made itself 80 manifest that
none but the blind can fail to see it?