70 THE LUNG PLAGUE OF CATTLE. 



cept under a quarantine of similar length. Every argument that can 

 be advanced in support of the one is equally valid for the other. The 

 same law that condemns murder, condemns suicide also; the same con- 

 siderations which expel the pillaging foreign army, doom the native 

 robber as well ; the same rule which quarantines the yellow-fever ship, 

 sends the city small-pox patient to the hospital. The lung plague in 

 our own infected districts is no less dangerous than that which may be 

 imported from Europe. If we allow this plague to reach our great open 

 pasturages it will matter little whether it has come from Liverpool or 

 New Jersey, from York or New York, the effect will be the same. It 

 will be none the less virulent and deadly in^Montana, that it has already 

 devastated the fields of Maryland. When it passes into the busy chan- 

 nels of commerce, it will matter nothing whether it emigrated from the 

 Old World thirty years or thirty days ago ; the disaster will be no less 

 great and the ruin no less remediless. 



It is a matter of honor and consistency, as well as of self -protection, to 

 prohibit movement of cattle from infected States. We can appreciate 

 the folly of England in imposing compulsory slaughter on American 

 cattle at the port of debarkation, and admitting freely the stock from 

 the plague- stricken mountains of Ireland; and, seeing this, we cease to 

 wonder at the perpetually recurring outbreaks in spite of a most expen- 

 sive system of repression. We condemn England for this folly, but in 

 so doing we condemn ourselves also. 



At the end of 1881 we could pronounce the great West free from this 

 plague, but in the absence of a prohibition of the movement of cattle 

 from infected States, we cannot guarantee this for a single day. Upon 

 the protection of the West all future success in dealing with this plague 

 depends, and thus the prohibition named is the first essential step in 

 the course of extinction. 



It is clearly the duty of the Federal Government to forbid the move- 

 ment of store cattle out of any infected State into any other State, except 

 after a rigid quarantine such as is enforced against foreign infected 

 countries. The prohibition to be effective must debar the store cattle 

 from one infected State from entering another State, even though the 

 latter should also be infected. This will put a stop to most of the smug- 

 gling, for transgressors will be made amenable to the Federal law, on 

 whichever side of the State line they may be found. 



Shipment westward or southward, which is the great thing to be 

 guarded against, will be most effectually shut off by issuing an order to 

 railroad and other carrying companies, interdicting them from moving 

 cattle out of the State except after quarantine as above specified. The 

 lung plague being confined to the eastern portions of New York, Penn- 

 sylvania, and Maryland, the cost of shipping cattle from infected dis- 

 tricts to near the western frontier, unloading them, driving them over 

 the line, and reshippping, would be too expensive to be indulged in in 

 the case of common cattle. In the case of thoroughbreds, the herd-book 

 record will expose any transgression to detection and prosecution. 



TRANSMISSION OF CATTLE THROUGH AN INFECTED STATE. 



In view of the enormous dimensions of our cattle traffic, and the fact 

 that the western supplies for the large manufacturing cities of New 

 England must be carried through New York, a provision must be made 

 whereby cattle from an uninfected State can be carried by certain routes 

 through an infected one into a second uninfected State. It must be pro- 

 vided, however, that this shall be done only on through trains which do 



