FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE IN PORTLAND, ME. 
545 
was made when the cattle was allowed to be driven over the pub¬ 
lic thoroughfare to Shattuck’s, thus setting at defiance all the pur¬ 
poses and intentions for which the quarantine was established. 
This, however will not be likely to re-occur, as the selectmen of 
Deering and Falmouth are moving promptly and efficiently in 
this matter, and no imported cattle will again be allowed to pass 
over their roads. West’s oxen were exposed to the imported cat¬ 
tle on the 2d, and were taken sick on the 8th, and Pierce’s and 
Rolfe’s cattle were exposed to West’s on the 8th, and taken sick 
on the 11th and 13th respectively. 
On the 14th, during my absence from the city, the Selectmen 
of Deering requested Dr. F. W. Huntington to visit Mr. Rolfe’s 
cattle, and he pronounced the symptoms similar to those of foot 
and mouth disease. Upon the 15th I confirmed the diagnosis of 
Dr. Huntington, and U. S. Collector Dow telegraphed the facts 
to Dr. Thayer, who came on the 16tli and visited with me the 
stables of Mr. Rolfe, when I showed him a typical case, which he 
at once unhesitatingly pronounced the foot and mouth disease. 
On Feb. 22d I was notified by Mr. Joshua L. Whitehouse, of 
West Falmouth, that his cattle were affected, when I immediatly 
made an examination and found a pair of oxen and six cows all 
showing marked symptoms of the disease. The exposure of Mr. 
Whitehouse’s oxen can be directly traced to West’s, at a black¬ 
smith’s shop, where the black oxen were taken on the 8th, and a 
few days afterwards Mr. Whitehouse had his oxen shod at the 
same shop. They were then first affected, and in a few days the 
cows. On Sunday the 24th I was informed that a cow at Mr. 
John L. Smith’s stable in Deering, was suspected, and ongoing to 
his place, found there was no doubt of the fact, and had her iso¬ 
lated from his other cows and put in quarantine. Until these lat¬ 
ter outbreaks I had every confidence in its early suppression and 
removal from our State, but it now looks as though we were but 
upon the threshold of very serious results. The disease is capa¬ 
ble of propagation in a great variety of ways, as through the me¬ 
dium of the atmosphere at short distances, and also by the saliva, 
the nasal, conjunctival, and intestinal mucus, which are highly 
charged with the virus, and I am convinced that the “end is not 
