422 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



in connection with the suppression of contagious pieuro-pneu- 

 monia. This was imported into this State about the year 1857, 

 and spread so rapidly and became such a serious menace to the 

 health of the neat stock that in 1860 this State found it neces- 

 sary to legislate on the subject. In that year it passed an act 

 (chapter 192) authorizing the governor to appoint three com- 

 missioners, who " shall have full power to cause all cattle be- 

 longing to a herd in which the disease has appeared or may 

 appear, or which may have belonged to such herds since the 

 disease may be known to have existed therein, to be forthwith 

 killed and buried," etc. Section 2 of this act provided : — 



The commissioners shall cause all cattle in the aforesaid lierds not 

 oj^pearing to be affected by the disease to be appraised before being 

 killed at what luould have been their fair market value if the disease 

 had not existed, and the value of the cattle thus appraised shall be 

 allowed and paid out of the treasury of the Commonwealth to the 

 owner or owners thereof. 



On account of the fact that contagious pleuro-pneumonia 

 spread so rapidly, and from the knowledge of its dissemination, 

 it was felt that the only safe course to be pursued to stamp it 

 out was not only to destroy the animals which showed upon a 

 physical examination that they were suffering with the disease, 

 but also to destroy all others which were brought into the 

 sphere of contagion ; feeling that it was much better for the 

 public welfare that healthy animals might possibly be slaugh- 

 tered, than that those which had within them the seeds of dis- 

 ease should be allowed to go at large and thus scatter the germs. 

 No reliable agent was known or used to determine with accu- 

 racy the existence of this disease in any given animal. Reliance 

 had to be solely placed upon the external symptoms of the dis- 

 ease, determined by physical examination. Under this act, 

 therefore, from the external evidence, the animals destroyed 

 were divided into two classes, — those which were evidently 

 diseased, and those which were apparently sound but possibly 

 mioht have the disease within them. In reijard to these two 

 classes the State adopted a different policy as to the payment 

 of compensation. 



In the case of animals which could be demonstrated as 

 affected, no compensation was paid. In such animals, how- 



