PLEUR0-PN EUM0N1A IN CATTLE. 
277 
were very slightly attacked, recovered. The average time an 
animal lived after the attack was about two weeks. In two 
or three cases they became tympanitic before death, and in 
one instance, of a two-years old heifer, the animal died in 
three hours after she was discovered to be ill. Strange as it 
may appear, no animal of the whole herd has died of this 
disease except those kept in the cowhouse, but the first 
two which died of the last importation, and they were not 
put there. Suppose a building standing on a hill-side, and 
commanding one of the most extensive prospects of any 
farm-barn in the state. You would think it in one of the 
most healthy locations. The cowhouse is fifty feet square 
inside; height from floor to ceiling, eight feet; with a cellar 
under the whole, for the purpose of making manure, having 
numerous small openings or scuttles in the floor for the 
purpose of passing down the excretions. These scuttles, 
having no hinges, would frequently tilt up and fall through 
upon the manure below, thus allowing the gases to ascend 
into the cowhouse. This, together with a badly ventilated 
place, with the cattle, forty-two in number, of all ages, 
standing nose to nose, I think you will admit was a sufficient 
cause for a disease of the character we have been describing, 
particularly when I again say to you that not a single head 
of cattle has died (except three out of the four, imported in 
May last) which had not been kept the previous winter in 
that cowhouse. The mammoth cow was bred in the state 
of Vermont, and was brought to market for beef, but Mr. 
Chenery was unwilling that such an extraordinary animal 
should be slaughtered, and he therefore bought her for 
breeding purposes. She was kept in the cowhouse from the 
middle of February, 1859, until the 1st of April, wffien she 
was removed a short distance into a shed, from twenty-five 
to thirty feet square, high, dry and well ventilated. Nor 
was she after leaving the cowhouse ever in contact with 
any other animals on the place, but was kept in the shed ; 
nor was she ever out of it during her life, except once 
by accident, and then she did not come in contact with any 
other animal. 
However strongly disposed I might be to call this disease 
infectious, I have equally strong reasons for believing the 
contrary. During the early part of the summer Mr. Chenery 
had in pasture, several miles distant from his farm, six young 
cattle, which w 7 ere born in the spring of 1858. He had also 
three other young cattle, which w ere born in the fall of 1858 ; 
these three w^ere kept in a pasture about eighty rods from the 
barn or cowhouse. He had also two calves from imported 
stock, born in this cow'house in the spring of 1859- In 
xxxiii. 37 
