62 



THE LUNG PLAGUE OF CATTLE. 



tli traffic from the West, and the facilities in common pasturage, ming- 

 ling of herds, &c., for its perpetuation if once introduced : 



*Fed. 



But our evidence is far from resting solely on our recent investiga- 

 tions. Dr. Thayer, who has been cattle commissioner for Massachu- 

 setts since he was instrumental in stamping out this disease from that 

 commonwealth in 1865, has made frequent examinations of the lungs of 

 western oxen in the Brighton slaughter-houses throughout all the inter- 

 A^ening years since, but has failed to find any indications of lung plague 

 during the whole of this period. In his official capacity he has been 

 called upon in all cases of diseases among farm animals supposed to be 

 contagious, but in all these eighteen years he has not met with a single 

 case of lung plague of cattle within the borders of Massachusetts. 



Professor Law, who has spent over thirteen years at Cornell Univer- 

 sity, arid as consulting veterinarian to the New York State Agricult- 

 ural Society, has been similarly called to any contagious disease in do- 

 mestic animals occuring in the agricultural portions of the State, but he 

 has not once met with the lung plague to the west of the Alleghany 

 Mountains, nor to the north of Putman County. 



Dr. Paaren, State veterinarian of Illinois, who has spent a number of 

 years in Chicago, has been most extensively consulted on diseases of 

 cattle in all the surrounding States, and has, in connection with the 

 commission, made special investigations at Peoria, Chicago, and Elgin, 

 has not once, in all this long experience, met with a genuine case of 

 lung plague in the West. 



Mr. J. H. Sanders, of our commission, whose business for many years 

 past has led him to note with extreme care every indication of conta- 

 gious disease among the cattle of the Western States and Territories, 

 has caused every suspicious case or circumstance that has come to his 



