114 
THE PLAGUE IN KANSAS. 
its symptoms to foot and mouth disease is found in the interior of 
our country, more than a thousand miles from the ports where the 
contagion must necessarily be introduced, it becomes a matter 
worthy of the most careful consideration to determine whether 
there was any means by which this contagion could have been 
transported to the affected herd. In the present instance the 
animals of the affected herds have been purchased or raised in 
the neighborhood. No foreign animals or people have been upon 
the farm. When the first attack occurred, foreign cattle had for 
a long time been quarantined at the seaboard to make it impos 
sible that this disease could have been carried in this way to the 
west. 
WHERE DID IT COME FROM ? 
“ It is almost impossible to find any means by which a foreign 
contagion could have been introduced. This important indication 
seems to have been greatly neglected in deciding upon the disease 
in Kansas. The foot and mouth disease is one of the most active 
contagions known. The period which elapses between exposure 
to the virus and the appearance of the first symptoms of the dis¬ 
ease is as a rule but two or three days. A very large portion of 
the exposed animals become diseased, and the plague rapidly 
spreads from farm to farm. As a result of these characteristics, 
within a week after the introduction, nearly every animal in the 
herd shows unmistakable evidence of having contracted it. A 
very small proportion of the animals may resist the contagion, 
but the proportion is much less than with most other contagious 
diseases, and is so small that it does not affect the rule just men¬ 
tioned. 
“ The disease at Neosho Falls showed very different character¬ 
istics from these. Goodrich’s herd suffered in the largest propor¬ 
tion, 65 out of 98, or 68 per cent, being affected. The first case 
here occurred January 10th, and no others until February 15th, 
or more than a month later. After this, new cases continued to 
develop for two or three weeks, but in a lot adjoining that in 
which the sick cattle were placed, there were twenty calves which 
remained entirely free from the disease. The isolation of these 
