240 CONTAGIOUS LUNG FEVER OF CATTLE. 



ob^^ates tlie necessity for a long-coutinnecl and expensive supervision in the ca«e of 

 every infected herd. If such exposed animals are placed in quarantine, as Tre are still 

 compelled to do by a defeat of the law in New York, we lind that every three weeks 

 or a month a new case develops, necessitating continued visitation, professional ex- 

 amination, and slaughter, and repeated and expensive disinfection, without taking 

 into account the enormously enhanced danger of the extension of the disease to other 

 herds. 



One other question will not brook an hour's delay. The testimony concerning the 

 two ship-loads of cattle slaughtered at Liver]^)ool may be misleatliiig, but unless a 

 gigantic blunder has been committed it impUes that the disease has already reached one 

 or more isolated spots in the West. TJiis was inevitable sooner or later if the disease 

 was not crushed out in the East, and I have constantly uttered warnings on the sub- 

 ject. If it has already taken place it should be treated at once, for the evidence im- 

 plies that not only has the malady gained a footing in the West, but that the owners 

 of the infected stock are acting unfairly by the country, and selling off their infected 

 stock to make what salvage they can. There are, then, not only of infected cars, stock- 

 yards, &c., but of the sale of lean stock to different locaUties in the West, whence we 

 shall have new streams of infection, until our uufenced ranges suffer. No delay should . 

 occur in ascertaining the facts of the case. If there has been a mistake it will rehevo 

 the country to know it, whereas if there is even one center of infection in the West it 

 should be stamped out promptly at any cost. 



REPORT OX THE STOCK- YARDS AT THE PORT OF NEW YORK. 



In investigating the existence and status of lung fever in the cattle of Long Island 

 and Manhattan Island, I met with several outbreaks in which the disease was traced 

 to cows sold into the herds in qiiestion by Patrick McCabc, a New York jobber. Three 

 such instances may be named: First, Mi\ Wheelock, farmer, at Eoslyn, Queens County, 

 purchased two cows of McCabe in August, which communicated the disease to the 

 whole herd of eighteen head, and to that of a farm about two mUes diitant, to which 

 tAvo of his (Wheelock's) cows were taken. Second, Mr. Brazzel, Eighty-first street. 

 New York, got a cow from McCabe the week after Christmas which conveyed the dis- 

 ease to his herd. Third, Mrs. Stur, Fiftieth street, New York, had a cow fi'om McCabe 

 about ten days ago on trial. This cow had been sick ever since her arrival, and when 

 I saw her on Saturday was in a condition of advanced pleuro-pneumonia. I had fur- 

 ther information, from a man in the trade who has a high reputation for honor, that 

 the cattle that had passed through the hands of this McCabe had been for two years 

 the most prolific source of disease in the dairies of Brooklyn and Long Island. 



Accordingly on Saturday last, in company with Dr. Lautard, I went to examine his 

 (McCabe's) premises and stock, when wo were much surprised to find that he kept 

 them in the New York public stock-yards at Sixtieth street, and I could not discover 

 that he had any other place. The clerk found in charge of the oflice at the yards as- 

 sured us that he constantly kept his cows there, and only removed them as he found 

 purchasers. He did not think he could have any other place for keeping cows. 



Af the time of our visit he had a number of cows in the yards. At these yards the 

 cows of all the dealers are usually placed in the sheep-house for warmth, but this is 

 immediately adjacent to the inclosures for the other stock, and all ahke must enter 

 and leave by the same roads and gates or wharves. Further, when the sheep-house is 

 crowded the cows are turned out into the open cattle inclosures in the yard. Cows 

 are received in these yards indiscriminately from near as well as remote places, in- 

 cluding among the former Westchester, Eockland, and Orange Counties, which, accord- 

 ing to the best evidence I can obtain, are infected. (I have not yet verified the last 

 fact by personal observation.) No iirecaution is taken to j)revent the proximity or 

 contact of these cows with the other stock. 



There seems, therefore, no alternative ; we must consider the New York stock-yards 

 at Sixtieth street as infected, and that stock shipped fi-om these yards to Europe will 

 be liable to develop the disease after landing if kept alive long enough to allow of 

 the completion of the period of incubation. That the evil results have been seen 

 mainly in the cows is explained by the fact that they are allowed time after leaving 

 the yards for the completion of the period of incubation (one to two mouths), whereas 

 the fat cattle even if sent to Europe are slaughtered before this time has elapsed. 



JERSEY CITY STOCK-YARDS. 



In these as in the New York stock-yards there is the entire absence of any means of 

 separating cows brought from near and infected neighborhoods and stock brought fi-om 

 the West or other uuiiiiVcted localities. The cow-stable is at the north side of the yards 

 and can only lie reached by cattle that have ])assed through among the inclosures for 

 the other stock. The stable itself is furnished with ojien gates, not doors, facing the 



