SECRETARY'S REPORT. 63 



It is manifest tliat tlu' means used to prevent the spread of the dis- 

 temper have so far proved eminently successful, inasmuch as, notwith- 

 standing I have lost some thirty animals — nearly half of my whole 

 herd — there has not been a single case of the disease elsewhere in the 

 neighborhood of my farm. 



As there seems to be an impression abroad that the disease in my 

 case was confined exclusively to the Dutch stock, I would remark that 

 such is not the fact ; that on the contrary, they have, comparatively, been 

 more exempt from it than any other breed. It is not, however, confined 

 to any particular breed, or to any age or sex, as the full-grown ox, the 

 mature cow, and the young calf have been alike prostrated by it; and 

 of the animals lost, five were thorough-bred Dutch, five Durham, one 

 Ayrshire, one Guernsey, two Jerseys, five Devons, two Natives, (all the 

 Natives on the farm.) and the remainder were grade Dutch. 



There has been no new case of sickness in my herd since the death 

 of the mammoth cow, Lady Washington, which occurred on the 8th of 

 January, and I am therefore induced to believe, that, so far as my animals 

 are concerned, the disease has run its course. 



From the foregoing remarks, it will be perceived that some months 

 ago, when the disease was raging, I believed it to be infectious or conta- 

 gious, but I confess that more recently the conviction has forced itself 

 upon me that it was of an entirely local character ; that the lungs of the 

 cattle had become diseased by breathing carbonic acid gas, generated in 

 the cow house in consequence of insufficient ventilation. The recent 

 developments with regard to the spread of the disease in North Brook- 

 field and vicinity — in tracing its origin to the calves that w^ent from my 

 farm in June last — together with the information that I have just received 

 in a letter from Holland, upon the subject, (published in the " Cultivator" 

 of last Aveek,) will, I fear, force me back again to the belief that it is the 

 veritable European scourge. 



With regard to the treatment of the disease, I can only say that 

 several of our most eminent veterinary surgeons have availed themselves 

 of the opportunity to study the disease by post mortem examinations 

 and otherwise, and arc, doubtless, competent to give valuable information 

 upon the subject. My own privateopinion, based upon costly experience, 

 is, that whenever an animal becomes really sick with this distemper, the 

 best treatment is to slaughter and bury forthwith. In Holland, the prac- 

 tice of inoculation as a preventive — as explained in the letter referred 

 to above, and which has been given to the public — has been productive 

 of extremely gratifying results, for " where the peasants formerly lost 

 from fifty to sixty per cent, of their cattle, they now lose only one per 

 cent." 



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