CONTAGIOUS DISEASES AMONG CATTLE. 497 



epidemic abortion occur very rarely during the summer and 

 when cattle are at pasture ; and as Uie i)assage of the act 

 was not generally known, and the circular not distril)uled 

 until July, it is not surprising that no cases have been 

 reported. This fact should not be accepted as positive evi- 

 dence that none have existed. Stock owners — but especially 

 those who deal to some extent in mikh cows — are very reti- 

 cent if there is any trouble wilh iheir herds, because, if 

 known, it would damage the rt putation of their stock and in- 

 jure their business. It is a well-known fact that in previous 

 years ( pidemic abortion has been of frequent occurrence, and 

 we shall exj^ect reports of cases during the period from the 

 middle of the present month to the middle of April. The 

 National Department of Agriculture has interested itself in 

 work simdar to that required by our statute, and its scien- 

 titic experts will co-operate wilh this Board in investigation 

 if any outbreak of the disease occurs. We desire to call 

 the attention of the Legislature to a peculiar feature of the 

 law for the suppression of " Contagious Diseases among 

 Domestic Animals," and the difficulty which has arisen in 

 relation to its equal and just admiuibtration. The law, as 

 found in the "Public Statutes," may properly bo said to be 

 a codification of all the enactments on this subject, from 

 18G0 to 1881, most of which were passed to meet great 

 emergencies, and in after years modified and adapted to 

 change or circumstances. A short review of this course of 

 legislation may not be out ol place here, and possibly it 

 will indicate the defects of the law, if any exist, and show 

 where, if at all, it needs amendment. 



The disease known as contagious pleuro-pneumonia, 

 brought to the State by two animals in 1859, had spread and 

 assumed such alarming proportions in 1860 that the Legisla- 

 ture passed an act, April 4, authorizing " the Governor to 

 a[)point three commissioners to visit, without delay, the 

 l^laces where the disease existed." 



It was mandatory, and required the Commissioners to kill 

 and bury all infected animals — not only those Avhich were 

 sick, but also those which had been exposed to the disease; 

 it directed them to " appraise all animals killed that did not 

 appear to be afiected by the disease, at their fair market 



