No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 477 



duce disease ; while in ordiiuiry years food of a more succu- 

 lent character would be eaten, which would not injure the 

 mouth or throat, and thus these germs would produce no 

 bad results, even if a few were present in the food. 



How the disease spread is an interesting question. Where 

 the animals were kept unburied, as they were at first, it 

 could be seen that foxes had been working at the remains, 

 eating them and pulling them about. It is possible that 

 foxes or birds might carry the disease from one pasture to 

 another, voiding the bacilli and spores in their excrement, 

 even although these germs were harmless to their bearers. 

 Certain it is that when the Cattle Commission insisted upon 

 having the carcasses burned or carefully buried the disease 

 commenced to diminish. 



This disease is certainly one worthy of further investiga- 

 tion and experimentation, and, if it should become of a per- 

 manent character, no doubt it w^ill be possil)le to determine 

 upon some means for its prevention. It is the opinion of 

 Dr. Theobald Smith that it would be better to attempt to 

 prepare a virus for protective inoculation from the germ 

 already there than to blindly adopt the use of the material 

 for the prevention of blackleg furnished by the Bureau 

 of Animal Industry, until it is proved that the disease in 

 Worcester County is identical with blackleg, and not a 

 different form of the malady, or possibly a distinct disease. 

 In fact, it cannot be too strongly emphasized that it would 

 be a very unwise plan to use a blackleg preventive vaccine, 

 for fear of infecting the pastures with another disease, until 

 it is conclusively proven that true blackleg and the dis- 

 order described here are identical. 



Texas Fever. 

 There has been no Texas fever in Massachusetts during 

 the summer of 1900, neither has there been for several 

 years. The commission has taken the usual precautions ; 

 that is, cattle brought in during the summer months from 

 infected districts can only be brought in for immediate 

 slaughter, and must be unloaded at the slaughter house and 

 not driven into pens or over streets that are used for north- 

 ern cattle. The reffulations of the United States Bureau 



