206 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



brain thus injured quickly putrefies, especially in warm weather, so 

 that inoculations are also impossible. If an animal must be shot, 

 it should be done with a pistol, and the bullet should enter the 

 forward part of the brain, otherwise important regions for examina- 

 tion will be destroyed. It is better still, when possible, to shoot the 

 dog through the heart; but whore it can be done, chloroforming is 

 p referable to shooting. 



4. Shipping. 



If a post-mortem diagnosis of an animal supposed to have been 

 rabid is desired, cut off the head, keep it cold, wrap it in cloth, 

 pack in a box or pail with plenty of sawdust and ice, and send it 

 to the Cattle Bureau, State House, Boston, Mass. Ice is most essen- 

 tial in warm weather, and especially in cases where the skull has 

 been fractured and the brain exposed or severely injured, as putre- 

 faction will quickly occur, preventing inoculations, should they be 

 necessary. Sawdust, excelsior or waste should be used, to prevent 

 the leakage of blood, etc. 



Avoid shipping so that the head will reach Boston on a Saturday 

 afternoon or the afternoon before a holiday, as it will not be de- 

 livered until Monday morning or the morning after the holiday, and 

 much putrefaction will have occurred, as the result of remaining so 

 long in a warm express office. If practicable, the head should be 

 kept at a cold-storage plant until shipped. 



Austin Peters, 

 Chief of Cattle Bureau. 



Later, notices of changes in the dog law were sent to the 

 chairmen of the county commissioners and mayors of cities 

 and selectmen of towns, in the following letters : — 



Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 



Cattle Bureau of the State Board of Agriculture, 



State House, Boston, June 13, 1907. 



To the Chairman of the County Commissioners of County. 



Dear Sir: — I desire to call your attention to chapter 241 of the 

 Acts of 1907, which reads as follows : — 



Section one hundred and fifty-five of chapter one hundred and two of 

 the Revised Laws, as amended by chapter one hundred and forty-two of 

 the acts of the year nineteen hundred and four, is hereby further 

 amended by inserting after the word " it ", in the eighteenth line, the 

 words: — Said officer shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the officer 

 or officers appointed under authority of section one hundred and forty- 

 three, — so as to read as follows: — Section 155. The county commis- 



