CONTAGIOUS DISEASES AMONG CATTLE. 295 



ing them, or to make such disposition of them as to prevent 

 the exposure of our native cattle. Sufficient time has not 

 eLipsed to decide the efficiency of the Act, but it is appre- 

 hended that railroad interests and convenience will inter- 

 pose serious obstacles to its enforcement. The dangerous 

 and insidious disease of glanders in horses has not diminished 

 since our last report. The germs of the disease appear to be 

 quite generally diffused through the State, except in the 

 south-eastern section, and in the counties of Berkshire and 

 Franklin. The enactment of 1881, removing the obligation 

 to appraise and pay for animals condemned and killed, has 

 materially simplified the duty of the Board, and must event- 

 ually diminish its expenditures : it wrongs no man, for the 

 glandered horse is not only valueless to his owner, but a 

 source of constant danger. The municipal officers of the 

 towns or cities have called for the aid of the Board in fifty- 

 seven cases: and of these, forty have been condemned, and 

 ordered to be killed. The Commissioners are firm in the be- 

 lief, that as soon as horse-owners are cognizant of the fact 

 that no compensations can be received for condemned animals, 

 and that to call for their aid is simply to ask for an order for 

 the death of the subject if found diseased, the owners or offi- 

 cers will destroy all pronounced cases, and hasten the work 

 of suppression. 



On the 25th of September the selectmen of Charlemont, in 

 Franklin County, notified the Board of the existence of a 

 malignant and apparently contagious disease in the swine of 

 a farmer of that town, and requested us to take control of the 

 same. The localitv was visited, and an examination made 

 of the diseased animals then living, and a post-mortem made 

 of one which had died the day of the visit, which established 

 the fact that the disease was hog-cholera, or swine-plague, 

 and in all important respects identical with the scourge which 

 has made such havoc in this class of stock at the West and 

 South. The circumstances attending the development of the 

 case were very unusual and peculiar ; but to guard the pub- 

 lic along the lines of rail transportation from the recurrence 

 of a like calamity in the future should be placed before the 

 public. It appears, that, on or about the 12th of August, 

 a freight-train on the Tunnel Railroad was derailed a short 

 distance from the Charlemont depot. In the train was a 



