ELEttRO-PNEUMON IA. 
25 
rounding a piece of solidified lung in which the cells were distended, and the 
usually very thin membranous tissue was thickened to a quarter of an inch' 
The left lung exhibited similar developments, with the exception that the cyst 
was smaller. Mr. Hatfield, the butcher, declared that among all the cattle he 
had killed, some of which had been.variously diseased, he had never seen any¬ 
thing resembling what was presented in this case. A portion of the lungs of 
this animal was taken to the State House and exhibited to the Governor and 
Council and to many members of the Legislature. On inquiry of Mr. William A. 
Houghton it was ascertained that another of his stock was sold in January, in 
poor condition, to a German butcher engaged in the manufacture of Bologna 
sausages. Still another died in February, before notice was given to the select' 
men. This notice was served on the 13th of that month, and on the following 
day the authorities took formal possession of the herd aud had one of the cows 
killed, which was found to be diseased in her lungs in manner answering to the 
usual description of the malady termed pleuro-pneumonia. On the first visit 
of the Commissioners, March 1st, a cow that had taken neither food nor driuk 
for six days was killed. On examination the right lung was found wholly dis¬ 
eased. The exudation had been excessive and the lung was firmly adherent to 
ribs and diaphragm. The left lung was in the main without disease, although 
exhibiting evident marks of having been overworked. 
An examination into the origin of the disease in William A. Houghton’s 
herd, and into that of auother herd similarly infected in the town of Quincy, a 
full account of which will be found in a subsequent part of this Eeport, induced 
the Commissioners, in view of the experience of other years aud as a measure of 
proper precaution, to act on the presumption that the disease was infectious. 
They accordingly ordered the entire isolation of all herds of cattle which, by 
any possibility, might have had any contact with one of the animals supposed 
to have been infected, aud prohibited the buying or selling of cattle by the 
owners of such herds. 
On the 11th of March, the Commissioners submitted a partial report to the 
House of Eepresentatives, in response to a resolution of that branch of the gov¬ 
ernment, in which the hope was expi’essed that the disease would be very limi¬ 
ted in extent. Subsequently, however, cases were multiplied; and for some time 
it was feared that the infection might have reached every portion of the Com¬ 
monwealth. The Commissioners were summoned in various directions, but in 
the main, ascertained that these requests were caused by cases which on exami¬ 
nation presented no appearances like those developed in the examinations in 
Milton and Quincy. In one instance, in the town of Rutland, an ox died very 
suddenly. His yoke-fellow was sold to a neighboring farmer, and the ox to 
which this had been mated was takeu sick and subsequently died. The lungs 
in these cases were examined. One was without disease in those organs, and 
the other presented a case of severe bronchial inflammation. In fact, in all the 
cases presented where no contact could be even inferred, not the slightest indi¬ 
cation, like those of the disease termed pleuro-pneumonia, was exhibited. 
About the first of April, from inquiries made at Brighton and Cambridge, it 
became known to the Commissioners that a disease of a peculiar nature had ap¬ 
peared in the herd of E. Welch, a milkman in South Boston. On examination it 
was ascertained that a cow which had been exposed in Dorchester, had been 
purchased and introduced into his herd about the 9th of January, and that sev- 
