No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 423 



ever, the disease had so advanced and its development was so 

 rapid that in the natural course of events the animal would 

 soon die from the eflects of the disease itself. 



In the case of the animals which were destroyed because of 

 their possible exposure to infection, the State paid the full 

 health value. The reason for this distinction as to the payment 

 was not that in one case the public good required it and the 

 other not, or that in one case it was a hardship upon the owner 

 and in the other case not, but was upon the basis that in the 

 case of the animal diseased it was a public nuisance and menace 

 to the public health and to a vast amount of money invested 

 in the neat stock throughout the State, and was so affected with 

 the disease as to become actually worthless. In the other class 

 of animals, however, it was impossible to demonstrate the exist- 

 ence of the disease, and it could not be proved that in any 

 particular case the animal was actually infected, and therefore 

 that that particular animal was a puljlic nuisance. The destruc- 

 tion of such an animal was fairly within the clause of the con- 

 stitution which provides that " whenever the public exigencies 

 require, that the property of any individual should be appro- 

 priated to public uses, he shall receive a reasonable compensa- 

 tion therefor." 



This law in the case of contagious pleuro-pneumonia gave 

 greater powers to the commission than those vested by the 

 present law in this Board, for that authorized the destruction 

 of animals simply because of their exposure to a disease, 

 whereas in the case of the present law this Board must deter- 

 mine in each case the existence of the disease ; and yet the Legis- 

 lature considered that when the State was threatened with so 

 great an evil as that, the adoption of so rigorous a policy was 

 the only practical means of stamping out the disease. The 

 result has justified their expectations. By the adoption of 

 these measures this dreaded disease was absolutely stamped out 

 in this State, and for twenty-seven years not a case has been 

 known within the limits of the Commonwealth. 



Different measures were adopted in other States, where it was 

 attempted to eradicate the disease by the destruction only of 

 such animals as plainh' showed that they were affected with the 

 disease by a physical examination. This method only resulted 

 in its wider spread, and it finally took years of persistent effort, 



