508 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
causing most extensive losses. The cattle-man on the farm 
was the son of the farm steward on the neighbouring farm 
of Pleasants. The buildings on the two farms where the 
cattle were confined were about a mile and a half apart, and 
the Pitcox cattle-man came this distance weekly to pay a 
Sunday visit to his parents. On such visits he never failed 
to go in to see how his father’s cow was doing. In the 
course of a few weeks the father’s cow was noticed ailing, 
and from her the malady spread to all the cattle on the farm, 
entailing heavy losses on the owner. 
2nd. In February, 1879, when we began the stamping-out 
of the plague on Long Island, a gentleman of the name of 
Ditmas Jewel took a great interest in the welfare of the suffer¬ 
ing milkmen, and visited one or more of the worst-infected 
stables daily. He owned one favourite family cow, a Jersey, 
which was kept alone in a private stable, separated by ample 
grounds from all adjacent herds. She was never removed 
from these premises, nor were other cattle admitted, yet, 
towards the end of March, she sickened, and soon perished, 
presenting the most characteristic lung-plague lesions. 
These two cases are conclusive, as in neither instance was 
there any possibility of direct contact with sick animals, 
while in both there was the mediate contact through the 
persons and clothes of the visitors. 
i). Contagion through the Infected Buildings .—This form 
of contagion is so exceedingly common that an apology would 
be needed for referring to it were it not for the hardihood of 
some in denying all mediate contagion. Distillery stables, 
where the cattle of many owners mingle, soon become in¬ 
fected in infected localities, and from that time onward they 
remain infecting, though all sick animals are excluded. 
Dealers’ stables suffer in a similar way; and thus, after a 
dealer has kept an infected animal in his place, he continues 
for months or years to disseminate cattle that infect others, 
though it may be impossible to find a sick beast on his pre¬ 
mises at any time in the interval. One or two cases may, 
however, be particularised : 
1st. John Miller, Farmingdale, L.I., traded with a Brook¬ 
lyn dealer, January 1st, 1879, for a cow, which, soon after, 
