CONTAGIOUS LUNG FEVER OF CATTLE. 233 



England seriously crippled. Members of Congress are now at home among tlie people, 

 and sucli a pressure ought to be brought to bear upon them as will compel them to 

 act ux3on this question as soon as they reassemble at Washington. 



In addition to the foregoing, I inclose you copies of the laws passed 

 by the legislatures of Massachusetts and Kew York for the suppres- 

 sion and extirpation of the disease during its prevalence in those States, 

 and the rules adopted and enforced by the British Government for the 

 extirpation of this and other contagious diseases among farm animals 

 in its Indian possessions. * 

 All of which is respectfully submitted. 



TOI. G. LeDUC, 

 Commissioner of Agriculture. 

 Hon. A. S. Paddock:, 



Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



Since the publication of the above letter (Senate Mis. Doc. Ii^To. 71, 

 Forty-fifth Congress, third session), many additional facts in relation to 

 the prevalence of this disease, and the measiu'es taken to sui)press, and, 

 if possible, eradicate it in the various localities in which it has been found 

 to exist, have come into the possession of the department. To the in- 

 formation contained in the following letter from the pen of Dr. James 

 Law, which appeared in the New York Tribune of February 25, is due 

 in part the active measures instituted by the authorities of that State 

 for the suppression of this destructive malady: 



A REVIEW OF THE DISEASE. 



To the Editor op The Tribune : 



Sir : The excitement about the cattle disease has had its proverbial course of nine 

 days, and there are already signs of reaction. From every side we begin to hear state- 

 ments that the danger has been exaggerated, that the disease only exists in three or 

 four herds, that it is seen only sporadically — not epidemically ; that the English live- 

 stock trade must be speedily re-established ; and that, in short, the whole thing has 

 been a gigantic mistake. Should this spirit prevail so as to prevent a uniform and 

 concerted action by the different infected States to crush out this baneful exotic, it 

 will rob the country of her best, antl perhaps her only chance, of seeming and main- 

 taining the European live-stock market. 



If the object ef this laisser faire argument is to soothe the minds of our European 

 cousins, and persuade them that this disease is less dangerous than that of Europe, 

 they may as well save their labor. Eiu'ope has learned by centuries of sad experience 

 the true nature of the contagious pleuro-pneumonia of cattle. Europeans now realize 

 that wherever there is one animal suiiering from this disease, there is a standing men- 

 ace to the whole cattle of the country. They know that where they allow the disease 

 to exist at all it decimates their herds yearly. Tliey know that wherever they have 

 boldly grappled with the enemy, crushed out every remnant of the malady and its vi- 

 rus, and jealously guarded their frontiers against its further importation, they have 

 permanently cleared their folds of a disastrous iicstilenco. They see that wherever 

 the disease has appeared in Western Europe, or in the western or southern hemi- 

 spheres, it has only been where a diseased animal or its virulent products have carried 

 tlie seeds into sucli" a land. They know that so long as they allow the free importa- 

 tion of cattle from an infected country, all their ettbrts to crush it out of their homo 

 stock will bo absolutely futile. 



Turning to England, which has been the main agent in drawing public attention to 

 the matter, she was absolutely ignorant of this disease until forty years ago, and in 

 Youatt's and other veterinary works published prior to this date we lind the most un- 

 Batisfactory accounts of this and other plagues known only on the continent. But from 

 1839, when it was first, in the presimt century, brought to the British Isles, and above 

 all since 1842, which brought the free-trade act and the free, importation of continental 

 stock, Great Britain has siill'tTcd more from this than from all other auiiiial jjlagues 

 put together. It was estimated that in the lirst quarter of a ctutury alter its intro- 

 duction this plague cost Engl.and Jj^SO, 000,000 in deaths alone. The additional losses 

 fi'om deterioration and lack of livestock, and from the infection of forage, &c., which 



* For these acts and the rules alluded to in this paragraph, see appendix. 



