398 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



more prevalent ; but the published experiments of sundry 

 investigators, the zeal of veterinarians for the public welfare 

 or their own personal interests, have pointed out the 

 methods by which it is propagated, and newspaper re- 

 porters have aroused public attention to the matter by 

 sensational or erroneous reports of a very few special cases. 

 The disease is and has been here ever since white men or 

 cattle occupied the land. At considerable intervals we find 

 it in single cases among large herds in all parts of the State ; 

 occasionally, under peculiar circumstances of hunger, expos- 

 ure and bad hygienic conditions, it is almost epidemic ; and 

 the same has been true when the latter conditions have been 

 reversed. Though not unmindful of these facts, we see no 

 occasion for alarm, but only for well-directed vigilance. 

 We do not believe the pecuniary interests of our stock 

 growers or the public health of our people require the 

 application of the extreme provisions of the pleuro-pneu- 

 monia law to this disease ; and, further, if it was applied, 

 and millions of dollars expended in its Execution, it would 

 be of no avail unless the State could be securely isolated 

 from all mankind, and all animals beyond its border. 

 Believing these statements to be facts, we have thought the 

 best course for us to pursue to curtail the prevalence of the 

 disease among cattle directly, and among humans indirectly, 

 was by inspection and elimination, it being the same we 

 have followed with the contagion of glanders. The question 

 of protecting the public health from the food products of 

 our herds wdiich might possibly be infected by this disease, 

 is a different one from that of curtailing the spread of the 

 disease among cattle, and is within the province and line of 

 duty of the local boards of health of our cities and towns, 

 or of the inspectors of food and provisions which the towns 

 and cities may appoint. 



Several attempts in this direction have been made by 

 boards of health during the year, but notably in Waltham 

 and Medford. In the former place information was received 

 by the board of health that on a certain farm producing 

 market milk one animal had died and another was infected 

 with tuberculosis out of a herd of twelve. Thinking it to 

 be their duty, they examined the premises and the herd, 



