No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 491 



board of health of the city or town by which he is confined or by the 

 Board of Cattle Commissioners, and the expense after ten days is to be 

 borne by the Commonwealth. No money having been appropriated, 

 the Commonwealth could not bear that expense. But it is unnecessary 

 to discuss the complication in which the law may land the inspectors, 

 liming no funds, the Cattle Commissioners are thereby excused from 

 further service. To make their position clear to the inspectors and 

 boards of health throughout the Commonwealth, however, it seems to 

 me that they should notify each board of health and each inspector that, 

 no appropriation having been made for them, they will not be respon- 

 sible for anything that the inspectors or boards of health may do. They 

 should also notify the inspectors and boards of health that, so far as 

 they, the commissioners, are concerned, they release all cattle from 

 quarantine. If the boards of health and inspectors then retain the 

 cattle in quarantine, they do so at their own peril. 



The above refers only to suspected eases of tuberculosis, as 

 the statute provides for compensation for such animals ; but it 

 does not mean that the inspection of slaughter houses is to be 

 discontinued, or that other suspected cases of contagious diseases 

 shall not be reported to this Board. 



Per order Massachusetts Cattle Commission, 



Austin Peters, Chairman. 



During the month of June the Legislature having adjourned 

 without having made any further appropriation, the chairman 

 was instructed to find out what duties were expected of the 

 commissioners ; consequently, after consultation with His 

 Excellency the Governor, the following letter was sent to 

 the Attorney-General : — 



Boston, June 25, 1898. 

 Hon. Hosea M. Knowlton, Attorney- General, State House, Boston. 



Sib: — The Legislature having adjourned after failing to make 

 a sufficient appropriation for the use of the Cattle Commission, 

 and at the same time not having repealed the law as relating to 

 contagious diseases among animals, I write to ask you for an 

 opinion as to whether the Cattle Commissioners shall attempt to 

 perform their duty during the rest of the year, or any portion of 

 their duty which would require no expenditure of money further 

 than the expense of the commissioners' compensation and their 

 actual travelling expenses. 



The only animals which the law contemplates paying owners for 

 are cattle condemned as afflicted with the disease of tuberculosis, 

 and then only cattle that have been owned within the State six 

 months. 



