SECRETARY'S REPORT. 37 



luis not witnessed it, as well as of weight, from five to twenty and thirty 

 I)ounds and upwards ; the same hepatizations, adhesions, serous effu.'^ions 

 and prevalent deposits in ahcesses and cysts, have been observed where- 

 ever examinations have been made. 



And thirdly, in the fatality of the disease. Mr. Chenery's herd con- 

 sisted of sixty animals, of which thirty have died ; Mr. Prentice's, thirty- 

 one, of which sixteen died; MV. Johnson's, about twenty, of which a little 

 more than half died. 



It may not be unimportant to observe, inasmuch as it has been claimed 

 that the Dutch animal is particularly obnoxious to the disease, from the 

 hereditary predisposition acquired from the disease having prevailed 

 in Holland over 200 years and thus tainted the stock, that the percent- 

 age of loss in the Dutch herd of Mr. Chcnery was a fraction less than 

 in Mr. Prentice's Ayrshires ; while that in the native stock of Mr. John- 

 son has exceeded that of both. Quite as great has been the percentage 

 of loss in other native herds in Brooklyn and New Jersey, teaching us 

 that no breeds of horned cattle are exempt from the disease. 



And lastly, and that to which your commission would att^|fh the greatest 

 importance in their report, in view of its practical bearing upon public 

 interests, is their profound conviction that it is most virulently contagious. 

 If there is any i-eliance to be placed on human testimony, every case of 

 the disease that has occurred in Massachusetts can be traced froni animal 

 to animal, step by step, through the Stoddard and Chenery herds to cows 

 imported from Holland. This fact was indisputably established in the 

 investigation made by the committee of the Massachusetts legislature 

 (see printed documents, extra session.) The disease in Kings County it 

 is admitted, was introduced by the imported cow from Germany that 

 sickened soon after her arrival and destroyed the dairy into which she 

 was introduced. "With equal certainty has the disease been traced in 

 "Westchester County, into the herd of Mr. Prentice at Albany and to 

 diiferent places in New Jersey, where at different times there have been 

 outbreaks of the disease. That it is contagious and not epidemic in 

 character, it is pertinent to observe, that the fact appeared in evidence 

 before the Massachusetts commission that the disease never extended 

 from Mr. Chenery's herd to an animal in the town in which he lives, 

 but to other towns where he had sent his animals the disease was 

 carried ; and that wherever he had sent an animal to come in contact 

 with other animals, there the disease was carried. You may isolate 

 contagion, but no man can so effectually bar his door to shut in an epi- 

 demic disease that it will not find its way to his neighbor's dwelling. 

 Your commission cannot be expected to enumerate all the facts that 

 have come to their knowledge and led them to beheve the disease emi- 

 nently contagious ; but cannot refrain from stating one, that carried 



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