The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1877-09-27
DEATH m THE MIrx-cAN.
A New Form Of the Texas Cattle
Fever Developed.

CLEVELAND, o., Sept. f2.-An ex.
tensive cattle plague has broken out
in the suburbs and country sur
rounding the city. 1t was first no
ticed some two weeks since, but
within day or two has greatly in
creased in violence. The veterina-
ny surgeons at first called it poison
ing, and treated it accordingly; but
it was at length noticed that the
trouble centered around the stock
yards and pastures where the Texan
cattle are turned ont, and the dis
ease was called a species of Texas
fever. The symptoms are first q
heavy falling off of the milk-yield,
followed by bloody urine and death
in a few hours. A surgeon who
has attended over forty cases says
that the disease is caused by the
poisonous bite of the many ticks
with which the Texas steers are
covered. This fall these ticks are
as large as water melon seeds and
look much like them. When an at
tempt is made to take one of these
ticks from the animal, the head will
be pulled off before the hold will be
released. They propagate very rap
idly, and on bright days the ami
mails are so completely covered with
them that they glisten in the sun
light. The blood, being impregna-
ted with the virus of the bite, pass
es on to the liver, when the poison
destroys the delicate membrane
which secretes the blood, and the
kidneys refuse to perform their of
fee, thus causing death. The beef
and milk of the deceased animals
are both poisonous; but with care,
that which is affected may be de-
tected. The fatty portions of the
meat have brownish yellow APP
pearance, while the lean is bright
red. When exposed to the air for
a very short time this meat turns
dark brown and putrid. This be-
ing driry section almost exclu-
sively, if the disease spreads back
into the country it viii cause great
hardships and suffering, and it
would seem more than likely that it
may do so, as it is very contagious.
The diseased animals convey the
virus from their mouth to the grass
they eat and the water they drink,
and, in one instance, a COW that had
not been within half a mile of any
affected animal, but had drank of a
stream flowing through a lot con
tanning diseased cattle, was at
tackled with the disease. Most OF
the milk partaken of by adults is
first heated by being placed in tea
or coffee or in some cooked food,
and thus the strength of the virus
is killed; but infants in several
cases have partaken of the diseased
milk and nearly died from the eff
fects. They are taken with violent
vomiting, and when they live, waste
away to mere skeletons, and break
out in blotches and sores.
A telegram from Leavenworth
Kansas, Sept. IL says; A new and
peculiarly fatal disease has broken
out among the cattle in this and
jefferson counties, and fears are en-
tertained that before its course Is
checked it may become an epidom-
ic, like the clover plague which
broke out in this city last spring.
1t is particularly destructive to
mich COWS, and within the last ten
days a. large number Of them have
died in this and Jefferson counties.
The disease seems TO be sort OF
fever, which soon proves fatal, and
so far nothing seems TO have been
discovered which has any effect up
on the disease whatever. Several
milkmen have quit delivering.