CONTAGIOUS LUNG FEVER OF CATTLE. 237 



Fnrtlier legislation having been found necessary for the speedy and 

 complete eradication of this malady, an additional act was jiromptly 

 passed by the legislature of 2s ew York, on the 15th day of April. (For 

 provisions of this act, see appendix.) 



During the latter part of February last, and shortly after the com- 

 mencement of this investigation of the condition of the dairy stock in 

 the vicinity of BrookljTi, Dr. Law was siunmoned before the Senate 

 Committee on Agriculture, which was then engaged in taking testimony 

 in regard to the i^revalence of pleuro-pneumonia among cattle in this 

 country. At the request of this committee he submitted the following 

 written statement : 



PLEUR0-PNETOI0NL4. IN NEW YORK AND ELSEWHERE. 



Statement op Dr. James Law. 



tnttectiox and infected places aroukd new york. 



Up to tlie time of my leaving New York we had found in that neigliborliood tliir 

 teen centers of the contagious pleuro-pneumonia, embracing over twenty separate 

 herds, and more than one thousand animals. Atone place alone (BUpsville), wo are 

 now kilHng the sick at the rate of twenty head and upward per day. We are further 

 doing all vro can to encourage the slaughter under our owti supervision of the ani- 

 mals that are in such infected stables, but which do not yet show signs of illness. 

 These are being disposed of at the rate of from thirty to seventy per diem. 



Healthy animals slaughtered in this way are sold as human food and their hides dis- 

 infected. All infected places are placarded as such, and placed in quarantine, within 

 which neither man, beast, nor bird is allowed to enter or pass out, save the necessary 

 attendants, who are disinfected and forbidden to go near other cattle. 



In the infected counties no movement of cattle is allowed save under special per- 

 mit given after examination. All are compelled, under penalty, to report to General 

 Patrick the existence of cases of contagious disease as well as all suspicious cases. 

 Finally, all sick cattle Idlled to stay the progress of the malady are paid for by the 

 State, according to appraisement, which shall in no case exceed one-half the original 

 value of the animal. This point I consider all essential to encourage the owners of 

 sick stock to report them, and at the same time to avoid the risk of artificial or care- 

 less infection of unmarketable animals for the pui-pose of selling them to the State. 



The minor details of our action I need not record. 



CATTLE KEPT AT THE BLISS\TLLE SWILL-STABLES. 



It having been testified before the committee that the cows in the stables of Gaff, 

 Fleischmann & Co. were there for dairy purposes only, I think it requisite to correct 

 the statement. The stables were filled not only with cows, but also steers and bulls. 

 The stock belonged to many difi'erent i)artics, but mostly to dealers and butchers who 

 hired their board. The owners of the stock had on their part, as a rule, no interest 

 in the milk, which went to third parties as payment for the care-taking of the ani- 

 mals. The healthy cattle fattened rapidly and were sold for beef, and as there was a 

 constant change of stock the contagion had an amjde field among the newly-come and 

 susceptible animals, and had a chance of extension to other places and herds with 

 every beast removed, fat or otherwise. 



I have had testimony that the fat stock frequently went out of Long Island, but 

 have no pergonal knowledgd of this. Now any such movement is pjeveuted, and the 

 consequent danger is at an end. 



NATURE OF THR CONTAGIOUS PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 



When speaking of this disease we should strike out of our vocabulary such words 

 a.fi epidemic iiwl sporadic. Out of Eastern Europe or Asia the malady is aisohitely un- 

 A/JOic)?, save as propagated hy eontagion or infeeiion. 



Wherever, out of these regions, it has made an inroad, it can always be traced to 

 the importation of a sick or convalescent animal, or of some product of such an ani- 

 mal. Jlany such instances could bo «lrawn from the records of its existence on the 

 continent of Europe, but, manifestly, those cases are more satisfactory which refer to 

 the extension of tlu! disease to distant islands and continents. During the European 

 wars at the beginning of the century, this malady, like the rinderpest, prevailed all 

 over Europe, wherever the armies marched, and the eastern or steppe cattle were 



