502 
.T. W. GADSDEN. 
non-committal, they all state in the most emphatic terms that by 
direct contact alone with the living animal can the disease be 
communicated. 
Professor Brown, who, as adviser to the British Government, 
receives reports from hundreds of inspectors, and is kept fully 
advised of every outbreak and the circumstances attending it, and 
lias made numerous experiments himself to determine this ques¬ 
tion, gives his evidence in the same direction in no uncertain 
terms. Dr. Bridge, who has been a practical worker in the disease 
in this country for years, is equally decided in the stand which he 
takes, and last, but not least, is the test at the Shufeldt Distillery, 
which was the largest ever made, and made, too, in the face of 
the strongest protests from those who at the time held different 
opinions, and as to the successful result of which you have the 
testimony of another practical worker, Dr. Casewell. 
In this one respect pleure-pneumonia differs from all other 
contagious diseases in cattle, for in all the others contagion may 
be carried by immediate contact , through food, clothing, buildings, 
etc., while this alone requires contact with the living diseased an¬ 
imal. 
WHY THE DISEASE HAS NOT BEEN ERADICATED. 
I 
Pleure-pneumonia has existed in portions of the United States 
for over forty years, and spasmodic efforts have been made in var¬ 
ious localities to get rid of it, but there has all along been a ten¬ 
dency to make light of it, and those residing in the sections of the 
country not affected, have disbelieved in its existence. 
Whenever an attempt- was made to secure adequate legislation 
to stamp it out, the cry was raised that it was simply in the in¬ 
terest of some department of the Government that desired the 
employment of a number of men, and the expenditure of a large 
appropriation. 
False statements were made to and repeated by members of 
Congress, and sectional prejudices were invoked to defeat proper 
legislative action. 
Ignorant persons have attempted the treatment of the disease, 
and farmers and cattle raisers have concealed its existence; while 
