494 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



dealer, trading in cattle, as usual, soon spread the disease far and 

 wide. 



" In the following April, an act was passed ' to provide for the 

 extirpation of the disease called pleuro-pneumonia among cattle,' 

 which gave the Commissioners power to cause to be killed all 

 cattle in herds where the disease was known or suspected to 

 exist. The disease had, at the time of the passage of the act, 

 been extensively scattered, and in a short time the appropriation 

 ($10,000) was absorbed. A larger number of cattle having 

 been exposed than was at first estimated, an extra session of the 

 legislature was called to revise the law, and to provide the means 

 of executing it. A new law was enacted, and received the sanc- 

 tion of the Executive on the 12th of June. 



" No new outbreak of the disease occurred during that year, 

 nor in that locality, as far as is known, to the present time. The 

 number of cattle killed was nine hundred and thirty-two. 



"For more than a y«ar nothing was heard of pleuro-pneumonia. 

 Tn fact, those most directly interested were confident that the 

 disease was extirpated. Early in the following winter, however, 

 it was reported that it existed in Milton, Dorchester, and 

 Quincy. 



"A Board of Commissioners was appointed, who, upon investi- 

 gation, found the report to be true. A pair of cattle was purchased 

 at Brighton, which were taken to Quincy, and both died. No 

 further history of them could be learned, as it-was impossible to 

 identify them; but the spread of the disease could in every 

 instance be traced to contact with the animals in the herd in 

 which they were at the time of their death, as shown in the 

 report of that year. The number killed during the year, was 

 one hundred and fifty-four. 



"For several months the Commissioners felt confident that the 

 disease was eradicated. In February, 1863, the Commissioners 

 were called to examine sick cattle in the north part of "Waltham 



