252 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



both as concomitants and sequelae of the malady, thus taxing to the 

 utmost the ability of the proprietors to furnish the required supply 

 of milk to their customers. 



" It is a fact, of great pathological value, that not only have 

 secondary attacks occurred in several of the animals, but even ter- 

 tiary in some few of them." 



In the Second Annual Report of the State Board of Health, 

 pp 426, et seq., will be found an interesting article, describing 

 the symptoms and progress of the disease in three persons, 

 acquired by partaking freely of milk drawn from cows affected 

 with the disease. In conclusion, the writer says : " In accord- 

 ance with the general law that animal poisons are destroyed when 

 subjected to a very high temperature, we are justified in believ- 

 ing that the affection can never be communicated to man through 

 the medium of the meat, provided it be thoroughly cooked, and, 

 upon the same principle, the milk might be rendered innocuous 

 by being boiled." 



In the " Lancet," 1869, in an article headed " Poot-and-Mouth 

 Disease in relation to the meat and milk supply," is the follow- 

 ing : " Boiling the milk has been recommended for the purpose 

 of preventing or lessening its injurious action ; but, as a matter 

 of fact, it may be stated that boiling does not alter the appear- 

 ance of the morbid elements, nor does it arrest the movements 

 of bacteria in the fluid." 



Contagion. 



That the disease is highly contagious does not admit of a 

 doubt. Cattle have become infected by being driven over the 

 highway where diseased oxen have travelled. A single animal, 

 which was purchased at Brighton, has carried the disease and 

 infected a herd of fifty head. As with all contagious diseases, 

 individual cases occur which are insusceptible to infection. A 

 large steer, recently slaughtered, weighing over two thousand 

 pounds, was daily turned into the yard, and drank the water 

 from the same trough where infected cattle were supplied with 

 water ; he escaped. Is the milk of cows affected with " foot- 

 and-mouth disease " healthy ? The answer is, emphatically, no. 

 Prom the limited time the malady existed in this State, little is 

 known of the effects of using the milk of diseased cows. Chem- 

 ical analysis, however, sufficiently demonstrates the fact. 



