178 PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN AUSTRALIA. 
order to adopt every means in their power to avoid the intro¬ 
duction of this malady upon their stations. 13. Stock-owners 
ought to form themselves into local committees in order to 
aid and assist the commissioners. 14. All cattle removed 
from suspected herds, or where the disease at any time pre¬ 
vailed, should be branded on the horn or rump with some 
determinate mark, so as to be again known as doubtfnl 
animals. 
The Massachusetts commissioners, at the commencement of 
their pleuro-pneumonian experience, destroyed 842 cattle. 
The practice was, that whenever herds w r ere found diseased 
in part, the whole were killed, and passed to the credit of the 
owners. The average value ruled about thirty-three dollars, 
paid out of the public purse. 
As in scab, the sooner stock-owners get their runs clear of 
pleuro-pneumonia so much the better for them; but it is not 
a work for one, or two, or twenty, it must be a pull altogether, 
else we labour in vain. 
Taking into our consideration the Australian colonies as a 
whole, only those acquainted with their topography, soil, 
climate, and mode of depasturing stock can fully comprehend 
the danger to which an important interest is liable by the 
visitation of such a malady as this pleuro-pueumonia. 
The manner in which cattle rove from camp to camp, and 
straggle from station to station, renders the spreading of this 
malady more than commonly dispersive. Then, it is not easy, 
it is impossible, to ascertain how many driven from the 
northward to Victoria endeavour to return, but that many do 
return is only too certain. The peril is, therefore, the more 
imminent to the northern and western colonies, more espe¬ 
cially when we take into consideration the latent nature, 
through unascertained times, of this treacherous pulmonic. 
No methods man can devise should therefore remain untried 
to arrest the propagation and dispersion of so direful a pesti¬ 
lence, and no time is to be lost. 
With regard to cattle imported from any country, the most 
jealous watch ought to be placed over them. These, from 
weary voyages, cold, privations, long confinement, and 
exposure, are extremely apt to develope disease (if concealed) 
a short time after landing. The consequences of removing 
animals into the interior, carrying hidden germs of disease in 
their organization, and finally breaking out in pneumonia, 
measles, or ovine smallpox, scab, or any other malady, would 
be ruinous to individuals—perhaps to a whole district or dis¬ 
tricts. A question naturally arises,—How long time should 
elapse before healthy cattle can be depastured on contami¬ 
nated runs ? The answer is difficult. The Scab Act specified 
