550 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



came down with the disease, showing unmistakable signs of 

 rabies, therefore confirming the original diagnosis. 



On November 23, Dr. O'Connell was called to see another 

 cow on the same farm, showing some of the symptoms that 

 the other cattle had shown before death, but was very much 

 in doubt as to it being identically the same disease. Word 

 was left with the owner, if the cow died, to notify the local 

 inspector at once, and specimens would be taken for a sec- 

 ond inoculation. The owner performed his part very faith- 

 fully, but the local inspector failed to report the case. 

 About seven days after. Dr. O'Connell learned, through the 

 commissioners of Hampshire County, that the cow had died 

 on November 30 ; he proceeded at once to the farm of 

 Brown & Avery, exhumed the carcass, and took sections of 

 the spinal cord and shipped them to Dr. Frothingham. 

 These specimens were, however, so decomposed that it was 

 impossible to use them for inoculation purposes. 



During the interval of the death of the last cow, Septem- 

 ber 18 to October 1, there were three or four more cows 

 that died in an adjoining pasture, one belonging to Mr. 

 Cameron and two to Mr. McElwain. Those cases were 

 never reported by the local board of health or by the cattle 

 inspector. All that is known about them is by hearsay ; 

 but it is said that their owners are to receive pay from the 

 county commissioners out of the dog fund. The barns 

 where these cattle were kept were ordered to be thoroughly 

 washed with boiling water and bichloride of mercury, one 

 part to five hundred of water. The carcasses of the animals 

 were buried very deep, thereby preventing them from being 

 eaten by dogs. 



It is here recommended that all inspectors throughout the 

 State, whenever such cases are reported to them, shall 

 immediately notif}' the Cattle Commissioners ; in fact, they 

 are required to do so by law, as annoying complications are 

 likely to ensue if local authorities are lax in co-operating 

 with the Board of Cattle Commissioners in any cases that 

 may prove to be contagious animal diseases. 



In addition to the symptoms described above and the 

 proof afibrded by inoculating rabbits from the suspected 

 cow, the cattle also had partly healed scars on the legs, such 



