20 THE LUNG PLAGUE OF CATTLE. 



Mr. Woodis, of New Braintree, purchased a cow of L. Stoddard, which 

 infected and led to the destruction of his herd of twenty-three cows. 



Mr. Olrnstead bought a yoke of oxen of Mr. Stoddard and kept them 

 five days, with the result of infecting- his herd so that one-third died r 

 and a second third were condemned by the commissioners. 



Mr. Olmstead sold the Stoddard yoke of oxen to a Mr. Doane, who 

 put them to assist, with twenty-three other yokes, in removing a build- 

 ing in North Brooktield. They were engaged in this for a day and a 

 half, and all had to be destroyed by order of the commissioners. 



Mr. C. P. Huntingdon purchased a cow from L. Stoddard and lost 

 seven. 



Silas H. Bigelow lost his entire stock of ten animals infected from 

 Doaiie's in the big team. So with M. W. Deland, Jonathan Pellet, 

 George Harwood, and others. 



These may serve to illustrate how the disease spread. For a length 

 of time every case could be traced directly to the Stoddard and Ghenery 

 herds. 



In the course of the next four years the disease was discovered in 

 herds in the following towns: Milton, Dorchester, Quincy, Lincoln, 

 Ashby, Boxborough, Lexington, Waltham, Hingham, East Marshfleld, 

 Sherborn, Dover, Holliston, Ashland, Natick, Sorthborough, Chelms- 

 ford, 'Dedham, and Nahant, and on Deer Island. 



Further, a herd of one hundred and thirty heifers from Lexington and 

 Concord were sent to different pastures in the mountains of New Hamp- 

 shire, in the towns of Hillsborough, Washington, Sempster, Stoddard, 

 Hancock, Peterborough, and Windsor, and several of these heifers, killed 

 about the 1st of June, were found badly diseased.* 



By the spring of 1860 the State of Massachusetts was aroused to the 

 danger, and in April an act was passed to provide for the extirpation 

 of the disease called pleuro-pneumonia among cattle, under which three 

 commissioners were appointed with power to slaughter and pay for all 

 cattle in herds where the disease was known or suspected to exist. 

 With various intervals these and succeeding commissioners were kept 

 in office for six years, and in their final report Mr. Preston and Dr. 

 Thayer congratulate the State on the "eradication of one of the worst 

 forms of contagious disease which has been found among cattle." 



The records show that, besides the animals which died of the disease 

 and those disposed of by the selectmen of the different infected towns 

 in 1863, when the commission was temporarily suspended, there were 

 1,164 cattle condemned by the commissioners. The cost to the State 

 was $77,511.07, including $10,000 laid out by the towns during the sus- 

 pension of the commission, t 



The record is one of which Massachusetts may well be proud as the 

 first instance in America in which a State has had the fortitude to main- 

 tain a consistent system of suppression until the last disease germ has 

 been extinguished. The fact that Massachusetts was specially favored 

 does not detract from her merit, which lay in seizing her opportunity 

 and making the most of it. Had she been destitute of railways, so that 

 her inland commerce had been carried, like that of Australia and South 

 Africa, by bullock teams ; had the disease found her herds i)asturing in 

 one great open country, entirely devoid of fences ; or, finally, had the 



*This sending of cattle to New 'Hampshire was finally stopped by a proclamation of 

 the New Hampshire commissioners that if any more animals infected with pleuro- 

 pneumonia were sent to the Granite State they would he slaughtered without indem- 

 nity. 



tThe total loss to the farmers of the State is estimated by Dr. Thayer at $250,000. 



