SECRETARY'S REPORT. ■ 13 



have seen fit to present, I beg leave to submit the following as a 

 Minority Report : — 



All must admit the importance of arriving at a correct con- 

 clusion in relation to the disease existing among the cattle of 

 the New England States, known as plcuro-pneumonia. For if 

 what is so generally said by those who have had the better 

 opportunity to examine the subject be true', viz., that the future 

 value of the neat stock in this country depends upon the vigilance 

 used to check the spread of the disease by the destruction of the 

 cattle having the disease, or having been exposed to the same, it 

 is certainly difficult to calculate the importance of vigilant 

 action in this direction. If, on the other hand, it be true that 

 all that is necessary is to use the care and precaution used in 

 the treatment of other diseases, then the course which has been 

 thus far pursued by this Commonwealth can be viewed in no 

 other light than that of an unwarrantable waste of property, 

 which if followed may involve the loss of many millions of 

 dollars. 



I suppose it not far from a just estimate to put the 

 amount expended by the State, and the loss suffered by indi- 

 viduals to the present time at two hundred thousand dollars, 

 ($200,000 ;) and when or where this expenditure is to cease, 

 no prudent man will venture an opinion. Two years ago the 

 Commissioners announced that they were happy to be able to 

 say that no case then existed in the State that they were aware 

 of, and the public were led to believe that they were finally 

 relieved of the terrible scourge ; and yet there have been since 

 that time more than a hundred cases ! Had the present Board 

 been called upon to make their Report two months since, I 

 doubt not they would have been happy in trying to quiet the 

 fears of any of the timid. All at once there breaks out on Deer 

 Island, in one of the better herds, if not the best one in the 

 State, as bad a case as has come under their observation during 

 the season. 



Believing that a just conclusion as to the proper course to be 

 pursued can only be arrived at by a careful consideration of the 

 facts bearing on the following questions, viz, : Is the disease 

 contagious ? if so, to what extent ? Is it curable ? To what 

 extent is it fatal ? Are the animals affected with the disease 

 worth keeping through a common course of it, either for fatten- 



