488 
TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING 
there to look after the matter for two reasons. First, there was 
a possibility that there had been an error in diagnosis. Those who 
have had experience with pleuro-pneumonia know how difficult it 
is to make a diagnosis, when you have only one of these animals, 
and no way of tracing the history of that animal. You may find 
the condition of the lungs which resembles pleuro-pneumonia, but 
which also resembles other diseases. We all know that pleuro¬ 
pneumonia produces a peculiar effect to the appearance of the af¬ 
fected lungs ; but those peculiarities are also found in lungs which 
have received their irritation from other germs and sometimes by 
other agents. So that it can be hardly claimed to-day that these 
symptoms are always those of contagious pleuro-pneumonia. Of 
course, when you take those symptoms of pleuro-pneumonia and 
couple them with other characteristics which we generally see, then 
we begin to have very positive evidence of the diagnosis. At 
any rate, it seemed to us there might be an error in diagnosis, and 
on the other hand it was possible that there might be pleuro-pneu¬ 
monia going abroad from our country from our cattle shipped 
from sections of our country where we did not know the disease 
existed. It was in the West before it was found, and it is just as 
possible it is out here somewhere as it was then, although if it 
had been here for any length of time we would have known it. 
Yet there is always a possibility, and for that reason it has seemed 
best to have our representatives on the other side. 
It may be said that the British inspectors do not claim to have 
found any contagious pleuro-pneumonia among our cattle since 
February last, and since that great progress has been made in the 
eradication of the disease on this side. The fact is there is very 
little pleuro-pneumonia in this country. I may almost say we have 
had none for the last six months, and as soon as it has been found here 
the animals have been slaughtered and the disease eradicated. But 
in this country as in other countries, the disease continues to ap¬ 
pear in certain places. One reason for its re-appearance was in¬ 
dicated to. you in the views which I showed here this morning, that 
stables which have been infected were retained with the infection 
in them, and in some of those cases it was not until the places had 
been utterly destroyed, the soil dug up and thoroughly disinfected 
