No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 503 



As has been stated in a previous report, when possible it 

 is desirable to chloroform a dog suspected of rabies, as a 

 bullet tears the brain to pieces and infects it with septic 

 germs, so that it is often unfit to use for inoculating experi- 

 mental animals for diagnostic purposes. As dogs may have 

 brain troubles causing symptoms resembling rabies, it is not 

 scientific to shoot a peculiar-acting dog and call him mad, 

 without, if possible, verifying the diagnosis with a rabbit 

 test, which settles the question beyond all doubt. 



Texas Fever. 



There have been no cases of Texas fever in Massachusetts 

 during 1899, but the commission is always on the alert to 

 prevent any outbreaks during the summer months. 



Early in the summer the attention of the board was called 

 to the fact that cattle were being unloaded from cars from 

 infected districts at the Brighton Abattoir, at a point where 

 it has always been customary to unload them for immediate 

 slaughter ; but, instead of killing them from the pens into 

 which they were unloaded, as in previous years, they were 

 driven down a lane back of the pens to another yard. The 

 following placard was immediately posted upon the street 

 along which the cattle were driven and in the pens in which 

 they were yarded : — 



Notice. 



Attention is hereby called to the following sections of chapter 

 408 of the Acts of 1899 : — 



Section 35. Contagious diseases under the provisions of this act 

 shall include glanders, farcy, contagious pleuro-pneumonia, tuberculosis, 

 Texas fever, foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest, hog cholera, rabies, 

 anthrax or anthracoid diseases, sheejj scab and actinomycosis. 



Section 36. Any person Avho fails to comply with a regulation made 

 or an order given by the Board of Cattle Commissioners or by any of its 

 members in the discharge of its or his duty, shall be punished by a fine 

 not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding 

 one year. 



Section 38. No Texan, Mexican, Cherokee, Indian or other cattle, 

 which the cattle commissioners decide may spread contagious disease, 

 shall be driven contrary to any order of the board of cattle commission- 

 ers, on the streets of any city, town or village, or on any road in this 

 Commonwealth, or outside the stock yards connected with any railroad 

 in this Commonwealth. 



