No. 4.] WORK OF CATTLE COMMISSION. 229 



Now, the next disease that I wish to speak of is tubercu- 

 losis. You have all heard of that disease. You will 

 remember I said that contagious pleuro-pneumonia went 

 through the State, and that the system adopted was to 

 stamp it out by killing, which worked well. It was a lung 

 disease. The consequence was that it became difficult to 

 get it out of the minds of the farmers of this Commonwealth 

 that an animal that had any trouble wnth its lungs did not 

 have pleuro-pneumonia. We have not had a case in the 

 State since 1864, but the boards of selectmen of some 

 towns, right after they had had our reports, would report a 

 case of contagious pleuro-pneumonia. The consequence was 

 that the Cattle Commissioners were under the necessity of 

 visiting many of these places, to allay the excitement. There 

 would be some farmer, it might be in Berkshire County or 

 Worcester County, that would report he had a case of con- 

 tagious pleuro-pneumonia. The whole community were 

 alarmed. The commissioners would go there and make 

 an examination, and they would find ordinary pneumonia, 

 or what we then called consumption. We had not got so 

 big in words then as to call it tuberculosis, and we killed a 

 good many cattle that had that disease. I do not know but 

 I can say that we killed cattle in almost every county in this 

 State, but they were not cases of contagious pleuro-pneu- 

 monia, they were consumption. 



Now, I am telling these things in this particular way 

 because of many things that have been said within the last 

 year. Finally, it came to pass that the Cattle Commissioners 

 thought it important that the attention of the public should 

 be drawn to it in our annual report. I may as well say here 

 as to say later, that the Massachusetts Cattle Commissioners 

 and the peo})le of Massachusetts have not been going on 

 blindfolded, utterly regardless of this disease, doing nothing, 

 gathering no information, and letting it run round through 

 the State. If anybody will take the pains to look the matter 

 up in the reports, you will find that in the report of the Cattle 

 Commissioners made in the year 1880 they dwelt particularly 

 upon this disease, and told the whole story of it, — how it 

 was found, where it was found, how it was developed, and 

 what would probably be the result ; and that report was 



