704 OBSERVATIONS ON THE LUNG PLAGUE OF CATTLE. 
rupted effort on the part of a Cattle Commission. This work 
cost the State $67,511.07, and the different towns $10,000 
more, but this was a cheap investment, as the plague has never 
since made its appearance in the commonwealth. 
Evidence of the Non-existence of Lung Plague in the West .— 
The fact that the Lung Plague has been unknown in Massa¬ 
chusetts for the past fifteen years, as it was unknown prior to 
the introduction of the four diseased Dutch cows in 1859, speaks 
volumes for the freedom from the infection of the great cattle 
raising States of the west. At the one cattle market at Brighton 
thousands of cattle arrive weekly from the west, yet for fifteen 
years not only has no cow nor lean beast brought this pestilence 
to the Massachusetts herds, but no ox has shown the charac¬ 
teristic disease of the lungs when slaughtered. The same remark 
may be made of Central and Western New York, and of all the 
New England States north of Massachusetts. In a twelve years* 
residence at “ Cornell,” and with the widest acquaintance of the 
herds of the State, I have never seen a case of Lung Plague west 
of the Hudson excepting in one herd in the vicinity of Newburg, 
to which the infection was brought by a cow from New York 
City. Yet all over the State are to be found cattle drawn from 
the west, and filling up the dairy and fattening herds of the 
Empire State. And although these herds are frequently deci¬ 
mated, and sometimes all but exterminated, by other diseases 
(Texas fever, malignant anthrax, tuberculosis, &c.), no such 
thing as Lung Plague has ever appeared amongst them. The 
same remarks apply to Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and, 
indeed, all parts west of the Alleghany Mountains. Though all 
supplied by the cattle from the west, all alike have hitherto kept 
clear of the plague. The same is true of our Gulf Coast States 
and Pacific States. No such plague has appeared in any of 
these, though their cattle are multiplying by the million. 
Non-existence of the Lung Plague in other States of America. 
—No Lung Plague has ever been found in any other American 
State. Mexico, Central America, the West Indian Islands, the 
South American .Republics, Brazil, and even Canada, have failed 
to import this Old World pestilence, and all of them maintain 
to-day a perfect immunity. 
Lung Plague not Indigenous to America. —Erom far-reaching 
facts like the above it becomes certain that American soil has no 
such sad fecundity as to produce the germs of the Lung Plague, 
for this affection has appeared at no point of the Continent 
where the descendants of the imported European germs have not 
been first carried, and the disease is to-day confined to a narrow 
area on the Atlantic coast, where the imported germs were 
planted, and where the conditions favoured its preservation and 
