No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 215 



able difficulty in compelling such authorities and persons 

 who fail to take advantage of these powers to act in such 

 matters. 



A further practical difficulty has ])een encountered by the 

 Commissioners, in that the work to be performed outside of 

 themselves falls upon town officers, boards of health and 

 local inspectors of provisions, the majority of whom have 

 found it very difficult to understand what the law in the 

 matter is, although willing to conform thereto after they have 

 been properly instructed. The reason of this ignorance of 

 the law is two-fold : First, the fact that boards of health and 

 local inspectors are apt to be chosen from a class who have 

 had little experience in the law, and who have little time to 

 devote to the examination of such matters. The second 

 and more cogent reason is that the law, as it stands to-day, 

 is scattered through a large number of acts passed from time 

 to time and to accomplish specific purposes, and without 

 proper care having been taken to make them mutually de- 

 pendent, so that it requires a legal mind to find these several 

 laws and to understand the powers and duties contained 

 therein. 



The machinery for the suppression of contagious diseases 

 today are a Board of Cattle Connnissioners, town and city 

 officers, local boards of health, and inspectors of provisions 

 and animals intended for slaughter or kept for the produc- 

 tion of milk. 



By far the largest part of the work, outside of the Com- 

 mission, is performed by the local inspectors. These were 

 originally created by an act of the Legislature passed in the 

 year 187G and incorporated in chapter 58 of the Public 

 Statutes. When originally passed, it was an enabling act 

 only, and applied only to such cities and towns as formally 

 accepted it ; and the act is evidently framed to give powers 

 to such cities and towns desiring to exercise them, and not 

 to compel the performance of such duties contemplated by 

 the act in towns not willing to undertake the same. As orig- 

 inally framed, it had no relation whatever to the Board of 

 Cattle Commissioners, but a slight relation, if any, to the 

 local boards of health. Since this act was passed, numerous 

 amendments have been made to it, covering the inspection 



