No. 4.] REPORT OF CATTLE BUREAU. 287 



cheap horse dealers in the cities or not is unknown ; but the 

 fact remains that there have been practically no complaints 

 this year of owners in country towns having horses destroyed 

 that had been recently purchased in the city, and found to 

 be diseased with glanders or farcy after arrival at the homes 

 of the purchasers. 



It may be that the work accom})lished by the veterinarian 

 of the Boston board of health and the agents of the Cattle 

 Bureau in diminishing the prevalence of the disease has led 

 to fewer animals showing clinical evidence of this malady 

 finding their way into the hands of this class of dealers. 



Rabies. 



At the time of making the sixth semiannual report to the 

 State Board of Agriculture, it was stated that rabies had 

 become so infrequent that it might be said that it was prac- 

 tically unknown in this Commonwealth. 



For more than a year, from September, 1903, to Novem- 

 ber, 1904, there was not a single authentic case of rabies 

 reported to the Cattle Bureau in Massachusetts. At the time 

 of making the report in January, 1905, two recent cases had 

 been reported, one being a dog owned in Somerville, reported 

 in November, 1904, and the other a dog in Milton, reported 

 in December, 1904. Since that time a number of serious 

 outbreaks have been reported, and the disease has been very 

 troublesome and annoying in several localities for a number 

 of months, causing a great deal of worry and loss to dog 

 owners, some loss of human life, and anxiety and expense to 

 a number of people who went to New York to receive the 

 Pasteur anti-rabic treatment from the New York City board 

 of health, as well as some loss of property to owners of 

 cattle and poultry. At the time of making the seventh semi- 

 annual report, last July, a brief account was given of a serious 

 outbreak in Lowell. Since then the disease has prevailed 

 extensively in parts of Worcester and Middlesex counties. 



In Worcester County numerous cases have occurred since 

 July, in Northbridge, Grafton, Westborough, Northborough, 

 Uxbridge, Upton, Milford, Hopkinton, Clinton and Lan- 

 caster, with a few isolated cases in Worcester, Leominster 

 and Holden. 



