Investigations into the Nature, Causation, and Prevention of Texas or Southern Cattle Fever Page: 76
301 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm.View a full description of this book.
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TEXAS OR SOUTHERN CATTLE FEVER.
waste products in the blood does not seem to follow in every case. In
a few the fever was high, although there was no apparent reduction of
red corpuscles. (See Nos. 166, 180, 198, 206, 219.) It must be stated
that in view of the fluctuations to which the number of corpuscles is
subject the counts in these cases may be somewhat misleading. Yet
on the whole the initial fever seems to be caused by something other
than the destruction of the red corpuscles, and we may invoke two pos-
sible causes, leaving their determination to more accurate continued
observations on single cases. These are the multiplication of the par-
asite in the blood, perhaps independent of the corpuscles and the throm-
bosis of capillaries in the nerve centers.
The question of a cyclical destruction of red corpuscles corresponding
to the different generations of parasites is an interesting one, but the
observations put on record in the appendix do not give us any definite
information. In acute cases after the first few days the fever is contin-
uous or nearly so and does not indicate any intermission or remission
of the acting cause. Whether the individual generations follow one an-
other so rapidly or whether there are a number of generations intermin-
gled has not been determined. To the eye there is more or less uni-
formity in the size of the parasites observed in any given case through-
out the body. They may be all minute in the stage of the coccus-like
bodies or they may all be unusually large (No. 66) or they may all be
in a stage intermediate between these extremes. It should be stated,
however, that in a few cases the fluctuation in the destruction of the
red corpuscles was regular enough to suggest a period of from one and
a half to two weeks in such cases. (Page 40.)
What becomes of the micro-parasites in those cases which recover?
We have already signalized the setting free of the parasites and their
accumulation in large numbers in the kidneys. Further than this the
observations do not go. The parasites are perhaps destroyed by a
combination of circumstances, one of which is the small number of red
corpuscles finally left for infection. Thus in blood containing only one
and a half to two million red corpucles fully one-half are enlarged,
embryonic forms which may not be so well fitted for the growth of the
parasite. Another circumstance may be the unfit condition of the
blood due to the presence of the very debris which the parasites have
aided in producing.
OUTBREAKS IN WHICH THE TEXAS - FEVER PARASITE HAS BEEN
DEMONSTRATED.
The parasite of Texas fever, or more particularly the coccus-like and
the larger pyriform stage of this microiirganism, have been demon-
strated in the following outbreaks:
(1) In the spleen of a case from an outbreak in Virginia, September, 1886.
(2, In the organs of cases from an outbreak in Maryland, September, 1888.
(3) In the blood and the organs of cases from an outbreak on the experiment sta.
tion (North Carolina infection), August to October, 1889.76
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Smith, Theobold & Kilborne, Fred Lucius. Investigations into the Nature, Causation, and Prevention of Texas or Southern Cattle Fever, book, 1893; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143538/m1/76/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.