8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



served on the 13th of that month, and on the following day the 

 authorities took formal possession of the herd and liad one of 

 the cows killed, which was found to be diseased in her lungs in 

 manner answering to the usual description of the malady 

 termed- pleuro-pneumonia. On the first visit of the commis- 

 sioners, March 1st, a cow that had taken neither food nor 

 drink for six days was killed. On examination the right lung 

 was found wholly diseased. The exudation had been excessive 

 and the lung was firmly adherent to ribs and diaphragm. The 

 left lung was in the main without disease although exhibiting 

 evident marks of having been overworked. 



An examination into the origin of the disease in William A. 

 Houghton's herd, and into that of another herd similarly 

 infected in the town of Quincy, a full account of which will be 

 found in a subsequent part of this report, induced the commis- 

 sioners, in view of the experience of other years and as a measure 

 of proper precaution, to act on the presumption that the disease 

 was infectious. They accordingly ordered the entire isolation 

 of all herds of cattle which, by any possibility, might have had 

 anyi contact with one of the animals supposed to have been 

 infected, and prohibited the buying or selling of cattle by the 

 owners of such herds. 



On the yth of March, the commissioners submitted a partial 

 report to the House of Representatives, in response to a reso- 

 lution of that branch of the government, in wliich the hope 

 was expressed that the disease would be very limited in extent. 

 Subsequently, however, cases were multiplied ; and for some 

 time it was feared that the infection might have reached every 

 portion of the Commonwealth. The commissioners were sum- 

 moned in various directions, but in the main, ascertained that 

 these requests were caused by cases which on examination pre 

 sentcd no a))pGarances like those dev<3loped in the examinations 

 in Milton and Quincy. In one instance, in the town of Rutland, 

 an ox died very suddenly. His yoke-fellow was sold to a neigh- 

 boring farmer, and the ox to which this had been mated was 

 taken sick and subsequently died. The lungs in these cases 

 were examined. One was without disease in those organs, and 

 the other presented a case of severe bronchial inflammation. 

 In fact, in all the cases presented where no contact could be 



