400 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



was endangered or a mistake made by setting these horses at 

 liberty ; but their future will be watched with much interest. 



Neat Stock. 



We have been frequently notified by boards of health and 

 private individuals of cases of supposed contagious disease 

 among cattle, particularly of contagious pleuro-pneumonia. 

 But examination proved that the trouble was ordinary pneu- 

 monia, or that complicated with some form of anthrax. 

 There has been no contagion among this stock, unless it has 

 been in the form of pulmonary tuberculosis. From year to 

 year this disease is attracting more and more attention. In- 

 vestigations and experiments are being made in relation to 

 its patholog}^ its character as a contagion, the laws which 

 control or modify its dissemination and periods of develop- 

 ment. The disease is not new, but was known and described 

 centuries before the Christian era. It has prevailed in all 

 the temperate and semi-tropical regions of the world in the 

 human species, and all domestic animals except, perhaps, the 

 horse. Its lesions are nearly identical in all, and under cer- 

 tain circumstances it may possibly be communicated from 

 species to species. Whatever diversity of opinion may exist 

 as to its virility as a contagion, all agree that it is heredi- 

 tary. Sanitary statistics in Massachusetts show that sixteen 

 per cent, of deaths among humans are caused by it, but this 

 cannot be taken as the ratio of its prevalence among bovines. 

 There is an accumulation of facts which makes it quite cer- 

 tain that the milk and meat of tuberculous cattle is not 

 healthy food unless it is heated to 150 degrees. The com- 

 missioners have not believed that the provisions of our law 

 are suflBcient to enable them by its force to curtail or eradi- 

 cate this disease, but they do believe that much would be 

 accomplished in this direction if stock owners would cease to 

 breed from suspected cows, and as fast as possible send them 

 and their present progeny to slaughter. During the year 

 Dr. Winchester, the veterinarian of the Board, in connection 

 with several other members of the profession, has made a 

 somewhat extended examination of herds of cattle in different 

 parts of the State in relation to the prevalence of this disease, 

 the account of which will be appended to this report. 



