the blood in its body weighs
about 50 pounds, if we assume that the blood represents one-twentieth of
the weight of the body, which is a rather low estimate. According to
experimental determination at the bureau station, which consists in
counting the number of blood corpuscles in a given quantity of blood from
day to day in such an animal, the corpuscles contained in from 5 to 10
pounds of blood may be destroyed within 24 hours. The remains of these
corpuscles and the coloring matter in them must be either converted into
bile or excreted unchanged. The result of this effort on the part of the
liver causes extensive disease of this organ. The bile secreted by the
liver cells contains so much solid material that it stagnates in the finest
bile canals and chokes these up completely. This in turn interferes with
the nutrition of the liver cells and they undergo fatty degeneration and
perish. The functions of the liver are thereby completely suspended and
death is the result. This enormous destruction of corpuscles takes place to
a large extent in the kidneys, where a great number of corpuscles
containing the parasites are always found in acute cases. This accounts
largely for the blood-colored urine, or red water, which is such a
characteristic feature of Texas fever. The corpuscles themselves are not
found in the urine; it is the red coloring matter, or hemoglobin, which
leaves them when they break up and pass into the urine.

_Symptoms._--After a period of exposure to infected soil, which may vary
from 13 to 90 days, and which will be more fully discussed under the
subject of cattle ticks as bearers of the Texas-fever parasite, the disease
first shows itself in dullness, loss of appetite, and a tendency to leave
the herd and stand or lie down alone. A few days before these symptoms
appear the presence of a high fever may be detected by the clinical
thermometer. The temperature rises from a normal of 101 deg. to 103 deg. F. to 106 deg.
and 107 deg. F. There seems to be little or no change in temperature until
recovery or death ensues. The period of high temperature or fever varies
considerably. As it indicates the intensity of the disease process going on
within, the higher it is the more rapid the fatal end. When it does not
rise above 104 deg. F. the disease is milder and more prolonged.

The bowels are mostly constipated during the fever; toward the end the
feces may become softer and rather deeply tinged with bile. Th