THE LUNG PLAGUE. 19 



case at the Higliland farm, Bolinoiit, occurred on the 8th of January, 

 18G0. 



In June, 18.59, Curtis Stothhird, of North Brookflehl, bought three 

 young cattle, one bull and two heifers, from Mr. Cheuery. One calf 

 showed signs of sickness on the way home. Leonard Stoddard, father 

 of Curtis, thinking he could better treat this sick calf, took it to his own 

 barn, where he had forty-eight head, exclusive of calves, and with which 

 the calf mingled. One animal after another was attacked, till the 12th 

 of April, Avlien thirteen head had died, and most of the remainder were 

 sick. The disease continued to spread from farm to farm as rapidly 

 as circumstances favored the admixture of stock. The period of incu- 

 bation in well-defined cases varied from nineteen to thirty-six days, and 

 averaged twenty-six and two-thirds days. 



The people of Massachusetts, a little slow at first, overcame the delays 

 incident to legislation, established a commission for the purpose of exter- 

 minating the disease, and an appropriation of $10,000 was placed under 

 the control of the commissioners on the 4th of April, 1860. The disease 

 was gaining ground rapidly, and a bill to extirpate the disease passed 

 its sev^eral stages and was approved on the same day. Commissioners 

 were appointed; herds were examined by surgeons, and, if infected, 

 slaughtered; the animals pronounced healthy at the time of inspection 

 were paid for; all the money appropriated was spent, and such was the 

 feeling then in Massachusetts that private gentlemen made themselves 

 responsible for a second amount of nearly $20,000. An extra session of 

 the legislature met on the 13th of May. Fresh powers were sought and 

 obtained, additional commissioners were appointed, and the disease was 

 apparently exterminated. It reappeared in 18G1, a new board of commis- 

 sioners was appointed, and further successful efibrts were made to prevent 

 the disease. On the 24th of December, 1803, Mr. Cliarles L. Flint, in a 

 letter to Governor Andrew, asserted that pleuro-pneumonia still existed 

 in twelve or fifteen towns of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Mr. 

 E. T. Thayer, to whom the i^eople of Massachusetts owe much for his 

 skill and industry as the veterinary commissioner, and Mr. Charles P 

 Preston, wrote their final report to the senate and house of re])resenta- 

 tives of Massachusetts on the 30th of December, 18G7. In that report, 

 in tendering their resignations to the governor, they congratulate the 

 people on the success which had been insured by efiicient co-operation 

 ''in eradicating one of the worst forms of contagious disease which has 

 been found among cattle," 



From n umcrous inipiiries there is not the slightest doubt in my mind that 

 the lung disease has continued, ever since its first introduction, to attack 

 some of the numerous dairies on Long Island. One of the best informed 

 dairymen in Brooklyn informed me that, three months after starting in 

 business sixteen years ago, he h)st eleven out of twelv^e cows he had 

 I)urchased in Newark, New Jersey, lie bought more and began to 

 inoculate with excellent results. Other people were losing, and he 



