GLANDERS AND FARCY. 289 



appraised value of the slaughtered animals shall be paid 

 by the town or city, and four-fifths by the State. Sect. 1, 

 chap. 24, of the Acts of 1878, provides that ''the select- 

 men of towns, and the mayor and aldermen of cities, and 

 the cattle commissioners of this Commonwealth, shall have 

 and may exercise the powers, and shall be subject to the 

 duties, for the prevention of the diseases known as ' farcy ' 

 and ' glanders ' among horses, asses, and mules, and for 

 the prevention of contagious and infectious diseases among 

 domestic animals, that are now conferred or imposed upon 

 them by the laws relating to the prevention of contagious 

 diseases among cattle." Acting in accordance with the 

 letter of these several enactments, during the present year 

 the selectmen of one or two towns in the Commonwealth 

 have caused horses declared by a veterinary physician to 

 be infected with glanders to be appraised and killed, and 

 have forwarded the bills for payment from the State treas- 

 ury. The Commissioners entertain the opinion that it was 

 not the intent of the several enactments herein quoted that 

 the town and cities or the State should pay for animals 

 already diseased, and of course, in the opinion of any com- 

 petent disinterested- veterinarian, unsafe and worthless ; but, 

 as the different acts now stand in their relation to each 

 other, it is unavoidable. 



There are good and imperative reasons why animals dis- 

 eased with glanders should be killed and buried without 

 compensating their owners ; and we would therefore recom- 

 mend the passage of an act making sect. 3, chap. 219, of the 

 Acts of 1860, inapplicable to horses, asses, and mules infect- 

 ed with the diseases know as " glanders " and " farcy." If 

 the present is a wise provision of law, that the Cattle Com- 

 missioners should, in cases of glanders and farcy, have and 

 exercise the same supervision and control of the municipal 

 officers of towns and cities as in cases of contagious diseases 

 among cattle, sect. 2, chap. 24, of the Acts of 1878, should 

 be so amended that it may apply to chap. 221 of the Acts of 

 1860. The Legislature of 1878 made an appropriation of 

 two hundred and fifty dollars for the purposes of the Com- 

 mission, only a moiety of which would have been expended, 

 but for the enactment of the law in relation to glanders and 

 farcy ; but bills incurred under the provisions of that act, 



