CONTAGIOUS PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN NEW YORK. 187 
from our own country millions of dollars, and New Yorfc" 
City being the port from which most of the cattle are shipped, 
the authorities of this State at once took measures to relieve 
herself of this foul incubus. 
Wise counsels and clear heads at Albany came to the 
rescue at this crisis. Governor Robinson called to the front 
Gen. M. R. Patrick, a gentleman of great experience in 
bovine matters, whose executive ability in 1868, while acting 
as Commissioner of Cattle, saved this State from being 
overspread by an epizootic of splenic fever (see report to 
Legislature, March 12, 1869). 
At General Patrick^ wish, James Law, Veterinary Pro¬ 
fessor at Cornell University, was appointed to direct the 
professional part of the work in stamping out this plague. 
On the 13th day of February, 1879, the Commission met 
in Brooklyn, organised an efficient staff, and at once pro¬ 
ceeded to the business at hand. Work was begun imme¬ 
diately in the Blissville distillery stables, containing 879 
milch cows. Those that had the disease in the acute form 
were destroyed and sent to the offal dock, while the balance 
were sent to the butcher, not a hoof being left to carry the 
pestilence. 
A great deal of opposition was raised by parties interested 
in the diseased animals, and at times but for the firmness 
of our executive, the lives of the veterinary staff would 
have been in danger. 
To carry on the work effectually it was necessary to issue 
such regulations as would completely control the traffic in 
cows and store cattle, and lead to the discovery of all in¬ 
fected premises. To this end the introduction of such 
animals from infected districts, viz. : New Jersey, Eastern 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia 
and Virginia, was prohibited, as well as the movement of 
the same from the infected to the healthy district within our 
own State. 
Of course a critical examination of all stables in the in¬ 
fected districts was at once commenced ; but this alone was 
not sufficient, for it was highly important to discover imme¬ 
diately the stables in which the disease already prevailed, 
that its spread from them might be at once prevented. For 
this purpose careful post-mortem examinations were made 
at the offal docks daily on all cows, so that no deaths from 
this disease escaped our knowledge, and the slaughter of fat 
cows at the butchePs was even done under the supervision 
of our inspectors. 
Pasturing on the commons was strictly forbidden and the 
