186 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



necticut until nine weeks after the exchange, and that it was admitted 

 to have existed in Decline's herd four weeks earlier than it appeared 

 anions Williams' cattle; and considering - , further, that the vicinity of 

 iS'ew Durham has mug been infected with pleuro pneumonia while none 

 had previously existed in the neighborhood of Salem, and the probabil- 

 ity is that the disease was carried from Xew Jersey to Connecticut. 

 There is one other possibility, however, Aiz., that both cows were in- 

 fected on the boat or between the boat landing and Decline's place. 



This theory is not probable, for the reason that a second cow was sick 

 at Decline's by the last of May, and this would require the assumption 

 that two fall periods of incubation had elapsed between April 10* and 

 May .10; that is, within six weeks. Now, it is very seldom that the pe- 

 riod of incubation of pleuropneumonia is less than four weeks, and it 

 is generally longer than this; consequenrly, it is very unlikely that in 

 two successive cases on the same farm it would be reduced to three 

 weeks. The admitted fact that both sickened at about the same time 

 is an indication that both were infected at the same time, and from a 

 common source, rather than that one contracted the disease from the 

 other. 



A second visit was made to the farm September 7, in company with 

 Hon. E. H. Hyde and T. S. Gold, of the State Commission on Diseases 

 of Animals, and Doctors Thayer, Jiice, and Parkinson, At this t ime the 

 bull and ox still presented symptoms of pleuro-pneumonia. The cow, 

 Mollis 3d, was again carefully examined and showed a rather large 

 area of dullness over the region of the heart and another low down 

 on the right side. My own opinion was that this dullness did not indi- 

 cate any disease of the lungs, though some of tin- others thought dif- 

 ferently. It was admitted by all, however, that there were no positive 

 signs of diseased lungs in her ruse. 



A third visit was made, in company wirh the same gentlemen, with 

 the exception of Dr. Thayer, September 12, when the ox mentioned 

 above was slaughtered and examined. This animal was now believed 

 by the owner to have recovered. The autopsy revealed the left lung 

 solidly attached over a large surface to the thoracic wall and dia- 

 phragm. One-third of the organ was encysted and beginning to disin- 

 tegrate, another third showed more recent hepatization and was not 

 yet encysted. A section showed the characteristic marbled appearance, 

 and the difference in the age of the inflammatory process in various 

 parts of the lung. 



Members of the State Commission have since informed me that the 

 bull continued to fail and was destroyed by the owner on the UTth of 

 October, Before this, however, the Commission was called September 

 IS to see a new case of the disease, which had developed on the farm 

 of Amos Williams, the second neighbor south from the originally in- 

 fected premises. This was a cow, which presented the typical symp- 

 toms and post-mortem appearances of pleuro pneumonia, having been 

 condemned and killed by the Commission. 



To recapitulate : II. E. Williams had seven animals affected out of his 

 herd of nine by the introduction of the cow from Xew Jersey, which 

 animal was so slightly diseased as never to attract attention. Of the 

 seven sick ones three died of the disease. Two of those slaughtered 

 probably could not have recovered; one of the slaughtered oxen was 

 improving, while the remaining cow was very sick when I last saw her. 

 The adjoining farm on the north and the second one on the south each 

 lost one animal fiom the disease. There were, consequently, nine ani- 

 mals affected in this outbreak. 



