REPORT OF CATTLE COIVIMISSIONERS. 407 



The first official notice was received from Alfred F. Holt, M. D., 

 health officer of Cambridge, who said, "I have personally exam- 

 ined the horses in the River Street stable, where some cases of 

 glanders occurred a year or more ago, and can find no evidence or 

 even suspicion that this disease exists there now," It is not to be 

 expected that Dr. Holt should recognize the disease in its chronic 

 form, and he fully appreciated his position, when he asked 

 the president, superintendent and veterinary surgeon of the road 

 if any of their horses were suffering from glanders. The answer 

 to his question was " No," which was, undoubtedly, honest so far 

 as their knowledge went ; but when the veterinary surgeon employed 

 is a student in his second year, and, as I am told, " being educated 

 by the corporation," what more could be expected? 



Knowing these facts, and that it was an improbability, where 

 such a large number of horses were owned, and that glanders had 

 existed among them, it was decided to inspect the horses. 



After the Board had made a partial examination of the horses, 

 and found glanders among them, the railroad employed a number 

 of veterinary surgeons of Boston to review the work of the Com- 

 mission, at the same time apparently ignoring the opinion of the 

 student. 



The first interview with any of the officials of the road took 

 place in Boston, September 29, when President Cummings and 

 M. F. Dickinson, Jr., counsel for the road, were present. 



Mr. Cummings stated that since last year, when the Commis- 

 sion ordered eight horses killed, the company had had very few 

 cases of glanders in their stables. Some half-dozen had been 

 killed on suspicion rather than knowledge of the disease. He also 

 said that the road had employed C. P. Lyman, F. R. C. V. S., 

 W. Brj'den, V. S., and R. H. Harrison, D. V. S.-, to review the 

 work of the Commission ; and their report, according to Mr, Cum- 

 mings, in relation to the first fifty-six horses examined, was, 

 fifteen suspicious, four disagreed on, and the other thirty-seven 

 — agreed that they had not, in their opinions, the disease, although 

 they would not declare positively. 



Mr. Cummings failed to mention that Austin Peters, D. V. S., 

 M. R. C. V. S., was called to the Harvard Square stable as the 

 first veterinarian to review the work of the Commission ; also, 

 that he stopped where he began, for his report was not, in the 

 opinion of the officials, as their future movements proved, favor- 

 able to the road, but sustained the opinion of the Cattle Commis- 

 sioners. 



The first consultation of the Board with the veterinarians cm- 

 ployed by the railroad took place October 3, at the Port stable. 



