318 Transactions of the American Institute. 



of Agricnltiire has acted wisely in employing him. But for the 

 future v.-e should be too proud to admit the necessity of importing a 

 veterinary surgeon wlien an alarming disease appears among our 

 cattle. Dr. Ganigee now thinks this disorder is produced mainly by 

 the change of grasses and climate in going from Texas to Illinois. 

 The diseases that have afflicted England came in the same way, that 

 is, from cattle imported from Hungary and lower Austria. With 

 the development of our railroad system, the same practice has been 

 introduced here, and with it these ravaging plagues that nobody 

 understands, and no skill of man has as yet been al)le to anticipate 

 or to remedy. 



Mr. jS". C. Meeker. — So far from diseased meat l^eing due to civili- 

 zation, it is due in many instances to rascality. There are butchers 

 in this city who will sell the meat of sick and dying animals raised 

 within ten miles of the ferries. The main. cause, however, arises from 

 building up an overgrown metropolis, which cannot in the nature of 

 things be supplied with healthful food. There is scarcely an article 

 of any kind of food which does not loose some of its good qualities 

 during every mile of its transit hither, all of which is at the expense 

 of the growers in the interior. I can buy a prize in a lottei-y about 

 as soon as I can buy a pound of good fresh butter in our markets. 

 Civilization and large cities such as Kew York now is, and as it 

 expects to be, are antagonisms. For the good of our country and of 

 mankind there should be numerous cities of moderate size all through 

 the vast interior, which should be the seat of manufactures, and the 

 supplies of food should come from their immediate vicinity. Still, if 

 meat is to be brought hither, it should be butchered wdiere fed, and 

 be transported in refrigerator cars. Then we would hear no more of 

 cattle diseases. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble. — My impression is that the plague arises 

 from the cruelty practiced on the animals in their transit. In our 

 city of ]S"ewark, cattle arriving on Saturday night cannot be unloaded 

 till Monday morning, so sacred do we hold the Sabbath, during which 

 time the animals are seldom fed or watered, and they drop down and 

 die in their prisons. In the cars in which hogs are confined, if pigs 

 come, or if any of their number die, they are eaten by the survivors. 

 State governments and the general government should suppress these 

 enormities with a powerful hand. 



