Cattle Plague. 687 



-nated ; stop all cattle and sheep traffic or movement for a large 

 area around each centre of possible infection caused by such 

 cattle ; remorselessly kill every head of such animals carried by 

 :such vessel, or that came in direct contact with them ; bury, burn,, 

 boil or dissolve in mineral acids, every animal thus exposed ; 

 thoroughly disinfect the importing ship, and every house, place- 

 -or thing the imported stock came in contact with, together with 

 all the dejections and debris, and even the surface of the graves ; 

 make a census of all cattle within the different quarantined areas, 

 and hold the owners or custodians responsible, under a heavy 

 penalty, to report every death and every case of illness ; whenever 

 the cattle plague is found in a place dispose of the entire herd as 

 has already been done with the infected imported stock, and in a 

 very few weeks the plague can be completely extirpated. The 

 -violence of the individual attack, and the very short period of 

 latency, makes the work incomparably easier than the extinction 

 of lung plague. There is never a long period of uncertainty 

 (incubation), there is virtually never a slight or occult case of the 

 ■disease, there is no equivocal chronic form of the affection. The 

 attack is made boldly and above board, and can be met success- 

 fully if met promptly and energetically. The danger in such cases 

 lies, less in the nature of the disease, than in the army of foolish, 

 -even if well meaning, meddlers, who denounce the temporary 

 interference of trade, the payment of indemnities to the cattle 

 •owners, the interference with private property, the destruction of 

 valuable thoroughbred herds, the interruption of the dairyman's 

 "business, the cost of disinfection, and a thousand other things, 

 and who too often succeed in hampering and delaying action, 

 until the infection has reached and spread over great unfenced 

 territories thereby getting beyond control, or, short of this, has so 

 established itself as to necessitate the outlay of a hundred thou- 

 isand for every hundred that would have been demanded at first, 

 and a long continued restriction of trade in place of the very tran- 

 sient interruption required by early, sharp, decisive action. 



One of the most important prerequisites is that every state, but 

 -especially those on the seaboard and with ports of entry, should 

 enact such laws as would make it possible for the Executive to 

 act at a moment's notice and to call in the help of the Federal 

 "Government to make an early and effective appltcation of the 



