On a Contagious Disease in Cattle, 281 



miles from Philadelphia, on the western turnpike,* and 

 soon after, the field they occupied, received another 

 drove which had been purchased by the late Mr. Strickler 

 of Columbia on the Susquehanna. It consisted of 260 

 head, and as I was afterwards informed by Mr. S., had 

 been purchased by him in Maryland, in the vicinity of 

 Hagers Town, and between that and the Cove moun- 

 tain. Sixty pf this drove were sold by Mr. S. near the 

 billet in Montgomery county, the greater part of which 

 died. Several others were sold at the Middle ferry on the 

 Schuylkill, eight of them were bought by the late Isaac 

 Coates, above Downing Town, and all died. Some 

 taken to German town shared the same fate. Part of the 

 South Carolina drove was sold at the Blue-Bell tavern, a 

 well known sale-place for drove cattle, and of these forty- 

 six head were purchased by Messrs. Weed and Holstein 

 who then rented the meadows on State island, (where I 

 then resided as Lazaretto physician) and were mixed with 

 near 270 others, a part of which had been purchased, 

 half fat, in the month of June preceding. In about four 

 days after the southern cattle had been turned out on the 

 meadows, they were brought up to the yard round the 

 barn, to be branded, and after remaining there a few 

 hours, they were returned to pasture. The disease first 

 appeared after a few days, among the cows in a field near 

 the barn, and which were regularly milked in the yard 

 used to confine the southern cattle until branded, and in 

 a pair of fine working oxen, which were regularly and 

 daily fed and yoked in the same yard. Several other 

 cattle were successively attacked, to the number of at 

 least twenty, all of which except one died. All those 

 purchased half fat in June, died. My advice being 

 asked, I went to the field where several of the cattle lay 

 ill, and was told that the first symptoms were loss of ap- 

 petite, and weakness of the limbs, amounting to inability 



