72 
PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 
local authorities of towns has been disastrous. This is owing, in great part, to 
the circumscribed action of such local authorities. They cannot reach the source 
of the disease. By the statute, the Commissioners have full power to visit any 
locality in the State, and require any persons to testify under oath as to their 
knowledge of the existence of pleuro-pneumonia in their vicinity, hence the fear 
of detection and punishment deters many from sending cattle that have been 
exposed, to the public markets to be sold ; but as selectmen can only act within 
their own municipalities, such cattle can be sent beyond the town limits and 
sold without restraint. 
If no board of Commissioners be appointed, and no active measures are 
to be taken by the State to prevent the spread of the disease, then it would be 
important that all laws relating to payments for infected cattle slaughtered 
shoul be repealed. Otherwise au unprincipled owner may sell a cow, infected 
with the disease, into a herd of sixty or more, and the owner of the latter may, 
when his cattle are taken sick, call in the authorities, and the town and State 
will be obliged to pay large sums of money, without thereby effecting any thing 
towards the arrest of the disease. 
The importance, as a sanative measure, of checking the spread of a contag¬ 
ious malady like this, has never been considered here as it should be. In Eng¬ 
land, where the trouble has become wide-spread, through inattention and ne¬ 
glect, active measures are now being taken to counteract the evil. There stren¬ 
uous efforts are made to prevent the sale of diseased meat, a business of great ex¬ 
tent in that country, and which has just commenced in this. The effect of sel¬ 
ling the meat and milk, in that country, of diseased cows, is now known and 
felt, and even j>erceptible in its vital statistics. It will be so here, unless 
prompt and efficient action is taken to prevent it. 
Respectfully submitted, 
JAMES RITCHIE, 
E. F. THAYER, 
HENRY L. SABIN, 
Late Commissioners on Contagious Diseases of Cattle. 
Boston, December 9, 1863. 
To the Honorable Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts : 
Chapter 138, section third, of the General Laws of 1862, provides that 
“ Cattle Commissioners, now or hereafter appointed, shall keep a full record of 
their doings, and report the same to the Legislature on or before the tenth day of 
Jauuary in each year, unless sooner required by the Governor.” 
The uudersigned received an appointment as one of the board of Cattle 
Commissioners, dated June 3, 1863, and was qualified under the same June 17, 
following. So far as he has learned, no additional Commissioner has been quali¬ 
fied. Under these circumstances, having had no authority to transact any busi¬ 
ness relating to the Commission, no report can be made. It is, however, proper 
to state that official notice was received from the selectmen of the following 
named towns, bearing the dates annexed, of the existence of pleuro-pneumonia 
within their several limits, viz:— 
