396 BOAED OF AGRICULTUKE. 



animals have been destroyed, and the trouble appears to be 

 on the wane, though it will probably be many months before 

 all danger will be passed. 



TUBERCUXrOSIS. 



In our report for 188(3, particular attention was called to 

 the prevalence of this disease, its peculiarities described, and 

 the difficulty of eradicating it by the force of our present 

 statutes, or any appropriation the Legislature would make. 

 The facts of a year ago are in the main the facts of to-day. 

 The disease continues with no apparent abatement or in- 

 crease, though, as the veterinary profession increases in 

 number, and attention is called to it more and more, there 

 is call for more active work. The disease could, doubtless, 

 be eradicated by placing it in the same category with 

 pleuro-pneumonia, and applying to it the same provisions 

 of law ; but it would, doubtless, necessitate the destruction 

 of twenty animals to save one, and require the payment of 

 many hundreds of thousands of dollars. 



There are other diseases of our domestic animals recog- 

 nized as contagious to a slight degree, — like footrot and 

 scab in sheep, and fouls in cattle, — and we are occasionally 

 notified of cases of the kind. But they occur so rarely, the 

 public safety is so little endangered by them, that we have 

 declined to consider them as within the intent of the law. 

 As we understand the statute, its object is not to relieve 

 individuals from their misfortunes and losses, but to protect 

 the public from the dissemination of a contagion which 

 might prove a great calamity ; and payments should only 

 be made when animals are destroyed which have been ex- 

 posed to such contagion, and may develop and communicate 

 it through the community, though there is uncertainty in 

 each case. The changes and modifications made in the 

 contagious-disease law by the Legislature of 1887, brought 

 to our aid a class of intelligent officers for such duty, 

 enabling us to act with more precision, and simplifying the 

 work of the department through which the detailed opera- 

 tions and expenses of the commission are required to pass. 



