THE CATTLE DISEASE. T 



from prevailing disease, it has not been universally so. On the 

 23d of October last, the Commissioners received a communi- 

 cation, through the secretary of state, from the selectmen of 

 Great Barrington, conveying the information that a " malignant 

 and fatal " disease was prevailing among the cattle of portions 

 of that and the adjoining town of Egremont, and asking for 

 the aid and cooperation of the Commissioners in dealing with 

 and exterminating it. Correspondence was entered into with 

 the town authorities, and it appearing that the disease did not 

 abate, and that that community was becoming much alarmed 

 about it, one of the Commissioners visited those towns on the 

 6th of November, to assist in investigating the matter. By this 

 examination it appeared, that about the 20th of July, a cow 

 belonging to Mr. D. C. Milliard sickened and died in a very 

 unusual manner, but without attracting special attention. He 

 lost another in August in the same manner, and yet another in 

 September. Early in October, or soon after the great freshet, 

 and when the cattle were quite generally allowed to run on the 

 flowed meadows of Green River, unconfined by fences, (which 

 had been swept away by the flood,) many other cattle, the prop- 

 erty of adjoining farmers, sickened and died, apparently with 

 the same disease that had destroyed Mr. Milliard's. At the 

 time of the visit of the Commissioner, thirty had died and 

 others were sick. No rational explanation could be given of 

 the cause of the disease, and no remedies discovered to stay 

 its progress or cure the diseased animals. It was found that in 

 some respects the disease resembled the Spanish Fever ; in others 

 it was entirely unlike it. The animals affected by it generally 

 gave no signs of disease until six or eight hours before death, 

 and in some cases died almost before they were known to be 

 sick. They all died in terrible agony and with convulsions. 

 All the post mortem examinations showed precisely the same 

 condition of the internal organism, — all the organs of the chest 

 apparently healthy, and those of the abdomen, with the excep- 

 tion of the spleen and bladder. The spleen was in all cases 

 very much enlarged, inflamed and softened, and its texture 

 destroyed. It could not be ascertained that .|lie disease was con- 

 tagious. One animal would sicken and die, t^hile others in con- 

 stant contact with it would remain perfectly healthy. The pecu- 

 liarities of the disease and its progress appeared to be such, that 



