412 BOARD OF AGEICULTUEE. [Pub. Doc. 



inspectors of cattle should also examine any horses that for any 

 reason they may at any time suspect of having glanders or 

 farcy. This recommendation was favorably acted u})on by the 

 Legislature, and was incorporated in section 4 of the Acts of 

 1894, which provided that the inspectors "shall also make, 

 from time to time, inspections of all other domestic animals 

 within the limits of their several cities and towns, whenever 

 they have knowledge or reason to suspect that such animals are 

 afl'ected with or have been exposed to any contagious disease ; " 

 and the Board feel that the fact that glanders is now reported 

 from a larger number of localities is because the local inspec- 

 tors have been on the lookout for this disease. The owners of 

 horses killed as being glandered receive no compensation for 

 animals destroyed, the law in this respect being the same this 

 year as heretofore. 



The great difficulty in getting rid of glanders lies in the 

 fact that it does not always declare its presence in the animal 

 certainly and surely, and that, even when an animal is known 

 to be affected, he is not reported or otherwise safely disposed 

 of, because he is very frequently able to work satisfactorily, 

 and the owner does not care to become a public benefactor to 

 the extent of the amount invested in the animal. This, how- 

 ever, probably always arises because the danger to the lives and 

 property of others is not fully appreciated by him. There is 

 considerable reason for believing that before much longer, and 

 by the help of an agent called mallein, we shall be able to make 

 as safe and sure a diagnosis in the presence of this disease as 

 we are now able to make in the presence of tuberculosis ; and 

 when this time comes, as it probably will in the very near 

 future, this problem will become infinitely less complex, and we 

 shall be able to afford Massachusetts horse owners a practical 

 immunity from a disease which has for years been a very costly 

 one to them. 



There have been no outbreaks in this State, so far as the 

 Board has knowledge, of other diseases mentioned in the act, 

 except some small amount of hog cholera, of which twenty-five 

 outbreaks in as many herds have been reported and quarantined. 

 Whenever notice of an outbreak of this kind is received, a letter 

 is written to the inspector of the town in which it has occurred, 



