The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-07-04
Cause and Transmission of Texas
CatfJe

Cause and Transmission of Texas
Cattle Fever.
Nothing positive was ever known in
regard to either the cause or the man.
ner of its transmission until the sub
jet was taken up by the Bureau of
Animal Industry in 1889. Under the
general supervision of Dr. D. f. SAL
mon. chief OF the Bureau. a syste-
matte investigation of the subject
ives begun at the experiment station
near the city of Washington. In the
laboratories of the station one of the
hest pieces of biological research that
this country has witnessed was car
| ried on by DR.. Theobald Smith, chief
OF the Division of Animal Pathology.
now a member of the Harvard Medical
Faculty. One of the most character
| istic symptoms of Texas fever in its
acute stages Is the loss of blood.
which, passing off with the urine, has
given to the disease in some coun-
tries the name of "red-water." 1t
had also been observed that the kid
reys, liver. and especially the spleen
were greatly enlarged and engorged
with blood. for which fact the dis
ease is sometimes known as "splenetic
fever" But DIR. Smith now demon
| stlated that the fever is not primar-
| lily a disease of these organs. but of
the blood. He discovered the presence
of a microsparasite in the red corpus
cles of the blood by which the cor
puscle itself is destroyed. There is
an enormous multiplication of these
parasites during the earlier stages of
the disease, resulting in the destruc-
| tior of from one-fourth to three
| fourths of the red corpuscles. These
dead corpuscles are eliminated through
the kidneys, and give rise to the char
acteristic symptoms of the disease
! The same micro organism was found
/ in the blood of healthy Southern cat
| tie.
While these discoveries were being
| made in the laboratories. equally i'm
portant results were reached in the
| field experiments that were being car
ried on at the same time. Under the
| immediate direction of Dr. F. l.. XII
bourne a series of experiments was
carried on covering period OF three
years for the purpose of determining
what part, If any. the cattle tick has
/ in the transmission of Texas fever.
From these experiments several i'm
portant facts were definitely establish
ed 1t appeared that the plague al
ways broke out among Northern cat
tic when they were allowed to run on
pastures occupied by "ticky" Southern
| cattle, or over which ticks picked from
Southern cattle had been scattered. The
| same results were obtained when ticks
were transferred directly from South
ern to Northern cattle. Not only so,
but even young ticks Matched arti-
fcially, which had never been in con-
tact with Southern cattle were found
! t. transmit the fever when they were
/ applied to Northern cattle or were
| scattered over the pasture occupied by
them On the other hand. southern
cattle were found to be entirely harm
less If carefully cleared OF TICKS DE-
fore being placed in the same pasture
with the Northern animals. 1t was
proved that the fever could not be con-
tracted by taking the germs into the
digestive tract. for large quantities of
ticks were fed to susceptible animals
alcne with their food without the least
sign of disease On the other hand, 1t
was found that the disease could be
readily transmitted by inoculating sus-
coptible animals with the blood drawn
| directly from the veins of cows sur
fering from the disease or with the
blood drawn from the veins of healthy
Southern cattle, thus proving that the
| disease germs are always present IN
| the blood of immune Southern cattle
1t is of interest to note, in connec-
| tion with the tick theory, that the
| transmission of disease germs by
| means of parasites, then entirely new,
IL now familiar to us all through the
discovery that the mosquito is respon-
sible for the spread of malaria and
| yellow fever-From The Texas Cattle
| Fever: How Science is Winning a
Long Fight" by Prof. Charles Shirley
potts, in the American Monthly Re-
view of Reviews.