CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 437 



the stateittent is niacle that Great Britain alone has lost not less than 

 610,000,000 per annum by the ravages of the disease since the year 1842, 

 the following brief history of its invasion and contiuous existence in this 

 country is given: 



Into Brooklyn, Lon;ij Islam! (New York), it -was introduced'in 1843 in the system of 

 a shij) cow, piircliased by Peter Dunn from tho captain of an English vessel. From 

 Dnnn's herd it spread to others adjacent and speedily infected the whole west end of 

 the island, as will he noticed later at greater length.* 



, Into Massachusetts the plague was introduced on the 23d of Jtily, 1859, in the bodies 

 of four Dutch cows, imported by Winthrop W. Chenery, of Belmont, near Boston. 

 These cows were procured from Purmerend and the Beems'ter, and were kept in stables 

 for several days at tho port of Rotterdam, an infected city, before being put on board 

 the vessel. They were shipped April 6, j)assed forty-seven days at sea, and were ill 

 during the last twenty days, one of the number having been iTuable to stand. On 

 landing, two were able to walk to the farm, while the other two had to be carried in 

 wagons. The worst cow was killed May Sl, and the second died June 2 ; the third 

 did well till June 20, when she was severely attacked and died in ten days ; the fourth 

 recovered. On August 20 another cow, imported in 1852, sickened and died in a few 

 days, and others followed in rapid succession. In the tir.st week of September, Mr. 

 Chenery isolated his herd, and declined all oifers to purchase, being now convinced 

 that he was dealing with the bovine lung-plague of Europe. 



Unfortiuiately, on June 23, he had sold three calves to Curtis Stoddard, of North 

 Brookfield, Worcester County, one of which was noticed to be sick on the way to 

 Curtis' farm. Several days later Leonard Stoddard (father of Curtis) took this calf to 

 his farm to cure it, and kept it in his barn with forty cattle for four days, when he 

 returned it to his son. It died August 20. Curtis Stoddard lost no more until No- 

 vember 1, when he sold eleven young cattle to as many difierent purchasers, and 

 wherever these went the disease was developed. In one case more than 200 cattle 

 were infected by one of these Stoddard heifers. Of the nine cattle which he retained 

 seven were killed and found to be badly diseased. 



An ox of L. Stoddard's sickened two weeks after he had returned the diseased calf 

 to his son, and soon died. Two weeks later a second was taken sick and died ; then 

 a dozen in rapid succession. From this herd were affected those of the following : 

 Messrs* Needham, Woods, Olmsted, and Huntingdon. Olmsted sold a yoke of oxen 

 to Doane, who lent them to assist with twenty-three yoke of cattle in removing a 

 building in North Brookfield. These belonged to eleven different herds, all of which 

 were thereby infected. 



This will suffice to show how the disease was disseminated. In the next four years 

 it was found in herds in the following towns : Milton, Dorchester, Quincy, Lincoln, 

 Ashby, Eoxborough, Lexington, Waltham, Hiugham, East Marshfield, Sherborn, Do-* 

 ver, Halliston, Ashland, Natick, Northborough, Chelmsford, Dedham, and Nahant, 

 and on Deer Island. 



By the spring of 1860 the State had been aroused to its danger, and in April an act 

 was passed "tojjrovide for the extirpation of the disease called pleuro-pneumonia 

 among cattle," which empowered the commissioners to kill all cattle in herds where 

 the disease was known or suspected to exist. With various intervals this and succeed- 

 ing commissions were kept in existence for six years, and the last renin ants of the i^lague 

 having been extinguished, the last resignied definitely in 1866. The records show 

 that 1,164 cattle were slaughtered by orders of the commissioners, in addition to others 

 disposed of by the selectmen of the different towns in 1863, when the commission was 

 temporarily suspended. The money disbursed by the State was $67,511.07, and by 

 the infected towns $10,000, making a grand total of $77,511.07, in addition to all lossea 

 by deaths from the plague, depreciation, &c. Dr. E. F. Thayer, Newtown, was the 

 professional commissioner who brought this work to a successful end. 



An importation into New Jersey in 1847 is recorded, to check which the importer, 

 Mr. Richardson, is said to have slaughtered his whole herd, valued at $10,000, for the 

 good of the State. Unibrtunately, all New Jersey men were not so public spirited, and 

 subsequently importations from New York and mayhap also from Europe have since 

 spread this pestilence widely over the State. From New Jersey it spread to Pennsyl- 

 vania and Delawaro, and thence to Maryland, District of Columbia, and Virginia, in 

 all of Avhich it still prevails. 



Of the progress of the disease southward from New York the records are somewhat 

 imperfect, yet sufficient to show a steady advance. Robert Jennings records its exist- 

 ence in Camden and Gloucester Counties, Now Jersey, in 18.59, and its introduction into 

 Philadelphia in 1860. It spread to " The Neck," in' the southern part of the county, 

 kilhng from 30 to 50 per cent, of infected herds, and spread in 1861 into Delaware and 

 into Burlington County, New Jersey. In 1868 Mr. Martin Goldsborough assured Pro- 



