MILK OF DISEASED COWS. 381 



disease to contend with, the commission was promptly filled , 

 and active measures taken to prevent its further spread, and to 

 confine it, as far as possible, to the points which it had already 

 reached. The sale of milch cows and store cattle at the public 

 markets was prohibited, a competent inspector appointed, and 

 the officers of towns were required to isolate herds where the 

 disease existed. General trade in cattle was suspended, and 

 the rapid spread of the disease stopped. The virus or poison, 

 which had infected the cattle yards of Albany and Brighton, re- 

 mained latent while the ground was frozen in January and 

 February ; but cattle exposed in those yards after the ground 

 opened from the frost, took the disease in the same acute form, 

 and rendered the continuance of rigid sanitary measures imper- 

 atively necessary, making it probable also, that, notwithstanding 

 the restrictions put upon trade by the cattle commissioners, the 

 disease will linger among us for many months to come, if not 

 permanently, to plague the owners of neat stock. 



Meantime the Board of Health instituted a series of experi- 

 ments and investigations, by which the highly contagious nature 

 of the disease was proved beyond all question ; and though a 

 fatal termination is uncommon, the use of the milk of diseased 

 cows has been followed not only " by lesions of the mouth and 

 intestines, but also by a well-marked cutaneous eruption," caus- 

 ing more or less distress. " In one family, the members of 

 which partook freely of milk from this source, a peculiar dis- 

 ease broke out in the course of five or six days, causing at the 

 same time similar and well-marked symptoms in no less than 

 three individuals, all adults. These symptoms consisted of loss 

 of appetite, nausea, slight acceleration of the pulse, swelling of 

 the tonsils and sub-maxillary glands, the appearance of a few 

 vesicles upon the lips and tongue, and a singular cutaneous 

 eruption on the lower extremities, consisting of clusters of 

 papules, vesicles, pustules* and ulcers of different sizes — the 

 latter characterized by a dark red color, while their peripheral 

 margin was slightly elevated and inflamed. Tiiese appearances, 

 in varied stages of development, were all seen at one and the 

 same time, indicating that a fresh outbreak of vesicles was tak- 

 ing place as rapidly as the old ones disappeared. In each in- 

 stance the eruption was confined to one limb, in two instances 

 appearing upon the front and side of the thigh, and in the other 



