Commissioner of Agriculture 299 



den by statute. The occurrences in Massachusetts and Michigan, 

 suggestive of the frightful possibilities for evil from such importa- 

 tions, may well appeal to our citizens. 



Dr. Tizzer, in 1902, obtained from a biological laboratory in 

 Massachusetts some vaccine with which to inoculate a calf, and 

 found to his surprise that the calf developed foot and mouth disease. 

 The vaccine had been imported from an aphthous fever country, 

 and subsequent experiments with other specimens of the same im- 

 portation, made in another part of Massachusetts, led to the same 

 result. As cowpox and font and mouth disease have nearly the 

 same period of incubation, last in the individual patient for the 

 same length of time, make an equally prompt recovery, and affect 

 the skin in each case, no1 only can the one disease be confounded 

 with the other, but they can exist simultaneously in the system of 

 one and the same animal, and the two eruptions will reach maturity 

 at the same moment. Matter taken from one of the resulting 

 vesicles, therefore, is capable of determining the evolution of the 

 lesions of both diseases. 



The outbreak in Michigan in 1908 has also been attributed to 

 cattle that had been used in raising vaccine virus just before, and 

 as these two are the only American invasions that have not been 

 definitely traced to importation of infected live stock, they stand 

 apart as most suggestive occurrences. 



Cases of this kind illustrate forcibly the imperative need of 

 such legislation and sanitary supervision as will prevent the im- 

 portation of pathogenic or other biological products from countries 

 where dangerous plagues exist. I recognize that any movement 

 in this direction will be met by strenuous and interested opposition : 

 (1) from the manufacturers of such products abroad who want 

 to exploit the great field now open to them in the United States 

 tor the profitable disposal of their ware-: ( 2 I from the agents of 

 such manufacturers wdio secure their commissions on the sales in 

 this country; (3) from the customers of the importers who accept 

 their more or less well founded claims and are willing to take 

 chances on the advantages promised to them, without dreaming 

 of the terrible dangers thereby imposed on the country at large: 

 ami (4) from the newspapers which are tempted to support the 

 perilous practice by the large -urns paid them for advertising. 



