No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 451 



setts, excepting perhaps among the old cows that die in the neigh- 

 borhood of our large cities ; while, with reference to the cattle 

 population of the United States, not one per cent are tuberculous. 

 This conclusion is arrived at by me from the following data and 

 experiences. 



I have been in general veterinary practice in Boston for twenty 

 years, and, in connection with this, live-stock and dressed-beef 

 inspector at Boston for several of the largest British steamship 

 lines that come to this country for the last ten years. I have 

 yearly inspected from 25,000 to 75,000 head of cattle up to last 

 year, and over 100,000 head this year (1890), and within six 

 months 3,000 quarters per week of dressed beef in addition. 



This embraces cattle from Canada and the northwestern States, 

 cattle from the eastern and the middle States, the South and the 

 West ; cattle of all ages, steers, bulls, cows, stags, oxen, heifers 

 and calves ; distillery-fed, slop-fed, corn-fed and grass-fed ; many 

 of them as high and fine-bred animals as there can be found in all 

 the world. If the disease is present to the extent stated, why 

 has it not been found among those that died in transit here, or at 

 the stock yard ? Why have not the English butchers and inspectors 

 reported it oftener? A few cases of actinomycosis, Texas fever, 

 anthrax, and two cases of an uncertain lung disease, are the only 

 diseases worth mentioning I have ever met with among our export 

 animals. 



In my regular veterinary practice I occasionally find cases of 

 tuberculosis, mostly within the last five years ; but not to any such 

 extent as reported, unless dairies of two cows, or herds of five, in 

 certain cow-houses, are meant to prove the large percentage, when 

 one or two of their number are diseased ; neither am I ready to 

 admit that the cows in the neighborhood of the old cities of Europe 

 are healthier than ours. 



I am also indebted to the Board of Health of Boston for their 

 latest reports. Dr. Alexander Burr, their dead-meat inspector, 

 has kept an exact account of all the cattle slaughtered at the 

 Brighton Abattoir during the year 1890. The largest percentage 

 of tuberculosis he finds among Eastern cows, where it reaches from 

 three to four per cent ; this shows that our cows are as healthy as 

 those of some of the cities of Europe, even where the sanitary 

 regulations are excellent, and have been for years, for their sta- 

 tistics are taken from the dead animal. They do not regard a 

 high-bred herd infected because one or two of its number have 

 been ; and at the international meeting these statistics were meant 

 to embrace only those actually diseased. 



Among the dead cows in the vicinity of Boston sent to the 



