CORRESPONDENCE, 
7« 
for seventeen years. 2. The animals were housed in wooden 
stables with contaminated surroundings, which it would prove 
impossible to properly disinfect. 3. The insidious character of 
the disease and the difficulty of preventing the introduction of 
infected animals. 
But to-day I can state for a fact that there has been no case 
found on this island during the past two years. I had been 
anticipating such a case and have put myself to considerable 
trouble in inspecting suspected herds and suspicious carcasses 
by post-mortem examinations, but not one outbreak have I de¬ 
tected up to date. If the “stamping out process by the pole¬ 
axe” has been so eminently successful in this district, the chief 
centre of contamination, I am justified in thinking that it has 
been so in other parts of the country, and so I do believe 
the United States of America, to be for the past two years,, 
and up to date, free of this bovine pest. 
It the face of these statements, it matters not, in my opinion,, 
what are the macroscopical or microscopical appearances of the 
lesions found in the lungs of our American cattle by European 
experts. The most important and essential link in the history 
of contagious pleuro-pneumonia is missing, and until this link is 
found to exist in this country, all other pathological appearances 
are not complete or conclusive evidence that said cattle had 
been affected with this disease. 
Several animals are reported as being condemned from vari¬ 
ous cargos at different times during the past two years, and one 
is justified in assuming that those cattle were drawn from vari¬ 
ous States, hence there must be several infected centres. If that 
were so, not even Yankee ingenuity could suppress the knowl¬ 
edge of their existence and location for such a length of time. 
There are many like me in the veterinary profession, and 
others in this country, who did not believe that the stamping out 
process would be a success, and would be only too ready, at this 
date, to back up our prophecy with facts, did they exist, and 
would now say, “I told you so.” 
Now look at this controversy from a purely professional 
