MEASURES TO PREVENT DISEASE. 9 



tioii was obtained in relation to the treatment or cure of the 

 disease ; in fact, so far as we could ascertain, no efforts were 

 being made to that end, or experiments tried of a curative 

 character. The sick animals were confined to hospital grounds, 

 and when the disease was far advanced, were slaughtered and 

 disposed of. The regulations to prevent the introduction of 

 cattle infected with this disease were so effectual that it is be- 

 lieved none were brought into the State except those first men- 

 tioned, and part of which were slaughtered in Brighton imme- 

 diately after their arrival. Those purchased by Mr. Alger, five 

 in number, were placed in a car with two northern cattle pur- 

 chased at the same time, on Wednesday, August 12, and conveyed 

 to Taunton. The cattle were yarded together until the follow- 

 ing Saturday, when it was discovered that the western cattle 

 were sick, and it was decided best that they should not be 

 slaughtered for beef. On Monday of the following week, their 

 condition was such that the attention of the city board of health 

 was called to the case, who ordered the five western cattle to be 

 slaughtered and disposed of as offal. The two northern animals 

 that liad been in contact with the diseased cattle from Wednes- 

 day until Monday were isolated, and kept in quarantine until the 

 16th of September, when they were examined by the city phy- 

 sician and pronounced perfectly healthy, and were slaughtered 

 and sold as beef. The cattle of this diseased importation that 

 went to Providence, about sixty in number, were many of them 

 found to be in such bad condition when they arrived at their 

 destination that they were ordered by the authorities to be 

 killed. Others, though evidently diseased, were kept in quar- 

 antine under the care and attention of Dr. E. M. Stone, city, 

 physician, who reports, after three months, that they had recov- 

 ered, and were apparently perfectly healthy. With the coming 

 of the first hard frosts of autumn, the plague has entirely ceased 

 in the States at the West, and there is no present danger of its 

 introduction to the herds of the Commonwealth, though with 

 the advent of the warm season fears are entertained that it will 

 break out afresh, unless Texas cattle are kept entirely aloof from 

 the cattle of the western and northern States. 



Respectfully submitted for the commissioners, 



Levi Stockbridge. 

 January 1, 1869. 



