The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-08-06
What is Bloody Murraln2
From the Nashville Uni on and Amesic,s1

ana was regarded as well till an hour be-
fore her death. Blood was discharged |
from the bowels at that time, and a deal |
of very black blood was found in them !
on a post mprtem examination. The
COW was eight ears old, and raised on
an adjoining farm in a good blue grass
pasture. She was taken from this some
two months since, and has been running
on the common with many other cattle,
having corn meal night and morning
She lost flesh, and had she remained on
her native grazing ground, she would
doubtless have continued well. 1t is
possible the cow was poisoned, but not
probable. What caused her DEATH The
heading of this article indicates the be-
let that the misunderstood malady,
called "bloody murrain," was the cause.
Texas cattle on being transported
through this State and others to market,
stopping few hours or days for rest,
waterhand feeding, although apparently
healthy and sound, have, nevertheless,
communicated a fatal disease to COWS
and other neat stock Men Of science
nave examined the blood, liver and con-
tents Of the digestive organs of both
slaughtered Texas cattle, and many 9TH
ers that have died from their contagion,
with microscopes, AID find organisms
alike in each which are regarded as the
living germs Of murrain. For reasons
that we need not now stop to point out,
these micro scopic parasites do not null
tiply sufficiently ito kill all affected ani>
mails; AMI they become as harmless as a
few lice or ticks on cattle
How do the daily droppings of one COW
on a large common communicate the
germs Of murrain to another COW graz<
ing'the same pasture? Any one who has
put foot on a ripe~puffbaIl knows that
the sporules fly far and near and light
on blades of grass as well as elsewhere
If the germs Of this fungus were para~
sites like rust on wheat, they might grow
on grass and if nature adapted them
to m ultiply In the intestines and blood
vessels of cattle, eaten with grass, they
would be as much at home in the stoms
aeh of an OK as the eggs and larvae IF a
b0t,fy are in the stomach of a hors e.
BOt>hies, or "bees, as some call them
firm perfect insects under, "a par. ntal
heap of horse dung; but if the female fly
were to deposit her eggs in the mass of
dy or wet excrements their embryo s
would all perish. What next2 She
must find some horse or mule on the hair
of whose legs and sides she Clues her
nits, for the large brute to bite, lick and
swallow into their natural abode in his
stomach.
1t is plain that the horse could have nc
bots in hisbclIy if he kept his lips away
from the eggs that produce them on his
legs and sides. 1t is also plain that the
ancestors of the bots that kill one horse
may for hundred generations have
paased through the bodies Of horses
without doing their foster parents an!
harm. The same is true Of the parasites
that produce mild cases Of Asiatic chOl
era, yellow and typhoid feVers, and muir
rain. Their germs exist in many sys
TENS without any conspicuous develop
ment of the fact. Some children ar
more subject tC worms than others, an
the same principle pervades all orgaDi
life.
A large cattle grower in Texas told tn
editor of the St. Louis StockYards r
Recorder that he uniformly cured IL
Texas cattle fever by giving a table
spoonful of ca!omeI in quart Of swet
oil to the beast effected. This is jud
CT Ius treatment, for the oil and the mir
eraI would be likely to work on the COZ
tents of the whole digestive aPparatu
on the blood, liver and other organs.
medical shot Of this kind in time mig
have saved our COW.
AnotI er hint may not be out Of pla
in this connection. Several years ago
farmer and his son, in East Tennessee
whose names we have forgotten, ],
their lives under the following circul
stances train load of Texas cattle b
infected the grass where they stoppe
which eaten by the farmers COW, caus
Ter death. Anxious to learn all til
could of the nature and character of I
disease, the father and son spent so
time in dissecting the dead animal b
imbibod the germs of murrain and di
We could easily cite many cases Of t
kind from European au thoritios
The history of this cattle distemi
goes ba * to the early times of Abrah
and Lot. Some FIVE hundred "
late, when Moses was about to
the children of Israel out of E.
we read If thou refuse to let the
brews go and wilt hold them shll,
hold the hand Of the Lord is upon
cattle which is in the field, upon
horses, upon the asses, upon the cam
upon the oxen and upon the sheep d
shall be grievous murrain." The d
OF men, horses, camels and sheep
this contagion, proves that it may
wide and destructive range and pr
also the great mistake III so often lie
the dead bodies of hogs dying of cho
of COWS, sheep, horses, etc, rot and
the air above ground. This practit