228 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



REPORT ON CATTLE DISEASES PREVALENT IN CALIFORNIA. 



By Dr. Thos. Bowhill, M.R.C.V.S. 



San Francisco, December 17, 1888. 



The Secretary State Board of Agriculture, Sacramento, California: 



In compliance with instructions from Dr. D. E. Salmon, Chief of the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry, I proceeded to investigate the outbreak of 

 disease among the cattle of San Diego County, and have the honor to sub- 

 mit the following results of my investigation: 



Arriving at San Diego I found that my written orders, etc., from Wash- 

 ington had not yet arrived, so I thought it the better plan to inform myself 

 of the following points: 



First — The direction in which the said disease was supposed to exist. 



Second — The ranches on which said cattle were supposed to be dying. 



Third — The health and condition of cattle, etc., in San Diego City and 

 its surroundings. 



In the course of my inquiries I came in contact with the following gen- 

 tlemen, and elicited the appended information: The first gentleman I 

 interviewed was Mr. George Selwyn, of the firm of Selwyn & Alison, whole- 

 sale butchers. He said: "I have been twenty-three years in this county, 

 and have known of the existence of disease in this county for the past six- 

 teen years, being worse in the last three or four years in the neighborhood 

 of San Diego. Some seasons the disease predominates in one locality. 

 This year (1888) it has manifested itself principally at Warner's Ranch, 

 which is owned by ex-Governor Downey, of California." He also stated 

 that cattle brought from the mountains in the interior of San Diego County 

 during the dry season of the year to San Diego City or any part of the 

 coast, are, from ten to fifteen days after arrival, subject to disease. The 

 disease is of frequent occurrence, and the cattle are slaughtered and used 

 for consumption. He next described the symptoms of disease and the 

 post-mortem lesions, both of which correspond to those of anthrax and 

 southern fever, more particularly the latter. 



I also obtained the following information about the hogs, viz.: that a 

 disease made its appearance about two years ago in the pens around the 

 slaughter houses, and although the disease has not been so marked, yet 

 the mortality has been slightly decreased during the last six months. 



In 1887 Mr. Selwyn said the mortality reached the enormous number of 

 one thousand head. I asked him if the disease existed at the present 

 moment. He said that he suspected it did. We then drove out to some 

 hog pens near his slaughter house, and I found some hogs running round 

 loose which exhibited symptoms of the last stages of swine plague, and 

 others in pens with the characteristic cough. At my request Mr. Selwyn 

 slaughtered one and I made an autopsy, finding the post-mortem lesions — 

 those of swine plague. I recommended that he (Mr. Selwyn) should de- 

 stroy the whole of the hogs, which belonged to a man to whom he rented 

 the premises. Mr. Selwyn further remarked that big jaw, or actinomy- 



