CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 447 



for some months at first the cattlo turned on this immense range kept apart from each 

 other in small groups, composed of such only as had herded together prior to their 

 coming on the range, and this most fortunate condition, coupled with the prompt dis- 

 posal of each animal as it sickened, secured the escape of 1,100 animals. Had the 

 occurrence heeu later in the season, when the cattle had learned to come together into 

 one great lierd, the results must have been most disastrous. 



A second case is that of Putnam County, in which the plague had been smouldering 

 since 1878, but was only discovered in September last. The State appropriation 

 would not warrant us to offer indemnities, but the county authorities promptly 

 assumed the responsibility, and every herd in which infection was found to exist was 

 at once exterminated. In this way six herds have been disposed of, consisting of 

 about 100 head, and a seventh, where sickness has existed for months but where it 

 has only j list been discovered, will be attended to to-morrow. 



As regards the future, I would strongly urge the National Government to assume 

 not only the dirocHon but the execution of this work of stamping out the plague. The 

 following among other reasons require this : 



1. The disease is an exotic, and if once suppressed could only reappear in America 

 as the result of importation. 



2. It is gradually extending, and if neglected must lay the entire continent tinder 

 contribution, 



3. If it reached our unfenced ranges in the West it would be ineradicable, as it 

 has proved in the European Steppes, in Australia, and in South Africa. 



4. As the seeds remain latent in the system for three months, infected cattle may be 

 moved all over the continent, from ocean to ocean and from lakes to gulf, and live for 

 a length of time in a new herd before they are suspected. 



5. Old cases with encysted masses of infecting matter in the lungs may show no 

 obvious signs of illness, and may be bought and sold as sound and mingle with many 

 herds in succession, convoying infection wherever they go. There is, therefore, the 

 strongest temptation for the owner to seek to secure a salvage by the sale of ap- 

 parently sound but really infecting animals. There is further the strongest proba- 

 bility that in a new locality these cattle would not be susjiectcd until one or more 

 herds had been irretrievably ruined. 



6. The infection of the South and West would inevitaT)ly spread the infection over 

 the whole Middle and Eastern States, as infection would pour in continuously through 

 the enormous cattle traffic, and all rolling-stock, yards, &c., of railways would become 

 infected. 



7. The live stock boars a larger proportion to the State wealth West and South than 

 in the East, hence the West has most at stake in this matter, and should bear its 

 Bharo in the work of extermination. 



8. The plague is more violent in proi)ortion to the heat of the climate, so that it 

 •wiU prove far more destructive in the semi-tropical summers of the South and West 

 than on the Atlantic seaboard. 



9. No State can be rendered secure unless all States are cleared of the pestilence. 

 One remaining center of infection on the continent is likely to prove as injurious as 

 the one infected cow landed in Brooklyn in 1843, the sad fountain of aU our present 

 trouble. 



10. It has been decided by a United States Supreme Court in Illinois, that a State 

 law forbidding the introduction of cattle from a neighboring State, because it is 

 feared they may introduce disease, is unconstitutional. Therefore each State must 

 keep a guard along its whole frontier, with quarantine buildings, attendants, and 

 inspectors, and must quarantine all cattle as soon as they shall have crossed. 



11. Smuggling is inevitable so long as there are distinct authorities in two adjacent 

 States. Eascally dealers have repeatedly run cattle into New York from New Jersey, 

 sold them and returned with their money before the matter could be discovered and 

 the law officers of New York put on their track. Were the law and execution one for 

 all the States such men could be api^rehended and punished wherever found. In 

 Europe it is found that an armed guard with intervals of 200 yards patrolling the 

 whole frontier day and night is not always sufficient ; how much less, therefore, with 

 us a law that can bo evaded with such impunity. 



12. Finally, there is little hope of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia stamping out 

 the plague at their own expense, so that unless the United States takes the matter up, 

 the work of New York, Now Jersey, and Pennsylvania wiU be but money thrown 

 away. 



This is a ma( tor which threatens with dire disaster the inter-State live-stock trade of 

 the future, and the National Government is called upon to stamp out the scourge with 

 the view of protecting the trade between States. 



As respects the organization that should be charged with the work, it certainly 

 ought to have a responsible heatl, and while the live stock interests should be repre- 

 sented, it should not be made too unwieldy to act at a moment's notice in any 



