The Columbus journal., 1903-06-10

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:lRcuaavENTlpso THE CATTLE
TICK.
Prof. ". 81. DalEymple o1 tAe Lou1s-
ans station, in IN address to Ne
,raska stockmen. said:
We In the South coasider. % tar -
,ur cattle interests aEe. coaeerned. ahd
xe might also say. those oe the North
.rn breeder who aims ak creating .
market In the South, that perhaps the
most valuable discovery ever made. u.
hat when Q few DROPS OF blood are
lrawn from one q cur native tick
infested animals. and injected under
seath the slkin Of susceptible one. It
Sill produce In the latter . mild at'
1ck Of TEXAS fever, from which. IN
he great majority Of cases. the animal
70 treated Win recover. and after.
yards b able to Withstand suboe-
luent attacks Of the disease. brought
about by Transmission Of the Specinc
organism through the medium Of the
common cattle tick. or, In other words.
become immune. I do not know Just
bow It 10 up here In NebraskA. but
down our way, there are still to be
found . few people. the exact num-
Ter have never attempted to est'
mate. Who have . sort Of ingrained
aversion for anything to which the
term scientific" is applied, but who.
at the same time, seem absolutely OBJ
livi0us to the fact, that scientific In.
vestigation, about which they appear
to possess such crude notions. and at
which they are inclined to sneer. %
II there was some sleight-06-
juggling connected with It, 10 nothing
more nor less than persistent. pains
taking searching after the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the
truth. In this very work Of immunixa'
ti0n, We have IN excellent illustra'
ton: Texas fever, the hitherto dread
ed bane and bugbear Of every South
ern stockman. below the fever line.
whose desire It was to purchase. in
northern attitudes. pure bred cattle
for the purpose of upbuilding and Inn
proving his degenerated herds. either
Of beef or dairy animals. has almost
~ many names as there are breeds
Of cattle, and just as many theories as
to its cause and methods OF treatment.
And 1t is probable that such . chaotic
state OF affairs would still have existed
had 1t not been for the indefatigable.
dogged, and persistent efforts Of the
scientist In his search after truth.
which has resulted in the accuracy Of
to the true cause and nature Of the
disease. and the more intelligent and
effective measures by which to com.
bat its ravages.
As has been previously limited. the
| actual, or exciting, cause of Texas
fever is germ-a malarial type Of
germ-belonging to the protozoa, the
| lowest form of animal life. Technic-
ally, this organism is known 10 "piro-
plasma bigeminum," and It can be
found within the red blood cells Of
any of our native southern cattle that
have been exposed to tick infestation.
1t may be Of interest to state at
this point that We have Southern ma.
| tives. however, that are non-immunes
This may appear rather strange to
some OF you, as It did to many, in
Guiding some Of our leading stock
journals. when . South Carolina herd
of cattle became infected with Texas
fever after exhibition at the Charles
ton Exposition in 1901. The explana
tion Of such an occurrence. however
8 quite simple, when We realize that
the tick II, % far ~ We know. the
only intermediary host of the disease
germ, and that there are many places
In the southern states, as. for. ex
ample, the alluvial lands of my OWL
state, or lands subject to periodic
inundation, on which ticks are rarely
to be found. Consequently animala
born and raised on such tick-fret
places are non-immune. because they
have not had the opportunity to be
come inoculated by the natural meth
Cd, viz, through the intermediation o.
the tick. But, II animals 20 raised
Sre afterwards placed upon ticky pas
lures. they will contract the fevel
Just - surely Is II they had been i'm
ported from North of the Fedora
Quarantine Line. In short, It IL, viii
rs, . question of ticks. or no ticks.