No. 4.] IIEPOKT OF CATTLE BUREAU. 305 



The outbreak in Kingston is traceable to a pair of cheap 

 horses bought from one of these unscrupulous dealers in 

 Boston, and one case each in Northborough, Haverhill, 

 Cambridge, Framingham and Brockton are traceable to like 

 sources. Two horses wore killed in Athol early in Decem- 

 ber, which Averc bought in Boston the last of October. 

 While dealers in the cheap class of horses do not sell glan- 

 dored horses exclusively, — in fact, only occasionally having 

 horses with glanders, — at the same time, these men are not 

 above selling such animals when they come into their hands, 

 if they are not discovered and reported to the Boston board 

 of health. 



The small outbreak in Greenfield was caused by a horse 

 which was brought there from an adjoining town, and very 

 likely originally came from the neighborhood of Boston or 

 Worcester ; but he had been traded through so many differ- 

 ent hands that it was impossible to ascertain where he origi- 

 nally came from. 



The case in Uxbridge was taken there from Worcester, 

 and was traded about in that town. With the assistance of 

 the State [)olice, one of the Uxbridge men was prosecuted ; 

 but, as usual, it was not possible to prove that he knew 

 the horse had glanders when he disposed of it, so he was 

 acquitted. 



It is Avell-nigh impossible to secure a conviction in these 

 cases, as the law requires proof that the seller knew or had 

 reasonable cause to believe that an animal was suffering 

 from a contagious disease at the time of sale. In the rare 

 cases where a conviction is secured, the courts do not look 

 upon the offence as being very serious, and the culprit usu- 

 ally escapes with a fine of from |25 to |50. 



That some of the dealers in the cheap class of horses 

 have reason to know what glanders is, is shown l)y the fact 

 that cases are reported as having been killed at some of the 

 stables, by the renderers or by the Boston board of health, 

 from which horses with glanders have been sold to i)eople in 

 country towns. It is certain that some of the animals at 

 the time of sale were suffering from the disease in such an 

 advanced form that any one who had ever had experience 



