14 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



allowing any cattle to live that have ever been exposed to this 

 disease. For the encouragement of those interested in neat 

 stock, the commissioners take pleasure in placing upon record 

 the example of a large owner of cattle immediately adjoining 

 the estate of ]\[r. J. F. Eaton. After Mr. Eaton's oxen had 

 died, this neighbor said to him : " If your bull standing next to 

 the oxen is taken sick, I sliall believe it is the pleuro ;" and 

 after the bull died, and even before, he took great precaution in 

 regard to his cattle — employing a boy constantly while the 

 cattle were in pasture to keep them from contact with Mr. 

 Eaton's. He would not allow any of his neighbor's cattle to 

 come into his yard, and as the result of his vigilance, he secured 

 the entire exemption of his herd from the disease which .had 

 utterly swept off Mr. Eaton's herd of at least twenty-four cattle. 



In view of the foregoing statements, it does not appear to the 

 commissioners worth their while, or of any advantage to the 

 community, to enter upon an elaborate argument against the 

 medical theory that lung diseases are not contagious, or against 

 the physical theory that this disease is generated from local 

 causes. They rely wholly upon the facts of its actual propa- 

 gation. 



It having been urged that in Brooklyn, N. Y., and Borden- 

 town, N. J., the same disease existed, and that its origin could 

 not be- traced, the commissioners deemed the subject of suffi- 

 cient importance to warrant them in making a personal exami- 

 nation of its developments in those places. They visited 

 Brooklyn, and examined the famous stables in Skillman Street 

 and elsewhere, and ascertained that the disease took off annually 

 thirty per cent, of the cattle ; that inoculation had been tried 

 ■without perceptible advantage, and that the effects of the disease 

 were such that the keeping of cattle in those places was fast 

 becoming profitless. It appeared on investigation, that the 

 theory of the self-producing character of the disease, or that it 

 was generated in badly ventilated stables, was wholly without 

 foundation ; and the commissionei-s were able to trace the 

 whole disease in its entire course to one cow, brought over in a 

 ship from England about twelve years since, and solJfco a 

 German, near South Ferry, Brooklyn. This cow was tran^rred 

 to one of the herds in Skillman Street, where the disease was 



