d by cattle taken into the infected district from other parts of
the world. It is characterized by the peculiarity among animal diseases
that the animals which disseminate the infection are apparently in good
health, while those which sicken and die from it do not, as a rule, infect
others.

It is accompanied with high fever, greatly enlarged spleen, destruction of
the red blood corpuscles, escape of the coloring matter of the blood
through the kidneys, giving the urine a deep-red color, with a yellowness
of the mucous membranes and fat, which is seen more especially in fat
cattle, by a rapid loss of strength, and with fatal results in a large
proportion of cases.

This disease has various names in different sections of the country where
it frequently appears. It is often called Spanish fever, acclimation fever,
red water, black water, distemper, murrain, dry murrain, yellow murrain,
bloody murrain, Australian tick fever, and tristeza of South America.

The earliest accounts we have of this disease date back to 1814, when it
was stated by Dr. James Mease, before the Philadelphia Society for
Promoting Agriculture, that the cattle from a certain district in South
Carolina so certainly disease all others with which they mix in their
progress to the North that they are prohibited by the people of Virginia
from passing through the State; that these cattle infect others while they
themselves are in perfect health, and that cattle from Europe or the
interior taken to the vicinity of the sea are attacked by a disease that
generally proves fatal. Similar observations have been made in regard to a
district in the southern part of the United States.

The northern limits of this area are changed yearly as a result of the
dissemination or eradication of the cattle tick along the border, but the
infected area has gradually decreased, owing to the successful endeavors
pushed forward to eliminate the ticks.

It was the frequent and severe losses following the driving of cattle from
the infected district in Texas into and across the Western States and
Territories which led to the disease being denominated Texas fever. It is
now known, however, that the infection is not peculiar to Texas or even to
the United States, but that it also exists in southern Europe, Central and
South America, Australia, South Africa, and the West Indies.

When cattle from other sections of the country are taken into the infected
district they contract thi