CORRESPONDENCE. 
75 
as reported in the daily papers. In conclusion, I sincerely hope 
that an appropriation will be made to study the best possible 
means of guarding against outbreaks of disease, but not for that 
antediluvian method, the stamping-out process. 
Respectfully yours, 
R. W. Finlay, Y. S., 
No. 134 West 124th Street. 
PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN CATTLE. 
Department of Health, 66 Court Street, ? 
Brooklyn, April 14, 1879. s 
To the Editor of the Medical Record :— 
Sir : Your correspondent, R. W. Finlay, impeaches the State 
authorities, charged with the exterminating of the bovine lung 
fever , with mistaking simple pleuro-pnenmonia for specific di¬ 
seases in question. Iiis charge would be a serious one if founded 
on a substantial basis ; but as it is, it is difficult to correctly 
characterize the statement which he advances in the name of an 
argument. The cattle in the Blissville distillery stables were not 
affected with contagious pleuro-pneumonia , because Prof. Wil¬ 
liams, in opposition to Professors I)uguid, McCall and Walley, 
pronounced that steers shipped at Portland, Me., were not so af¬ 
fected. If Mr. Finlay has any private information, showing that 
the cattle shipped on the Ontario from Portland, Me., were taken 
from the Blissville stables, it will go far to settle the question as 
to the nature of the disease about which the professors differed at 
Liverpool. If he has not, perhaps he will kindly enlighten your 
readers as to the possible connection between the cattle shipped 
at Portland and those in the Blissville stables. 
“ Veterinary surgeons and stock-raisers in various parts of the 
country . . . have failed to discover the innumerable quantity of 
animals affected, as reported in the daily papers.” Mr. Finlay is 
welcome to his empty honor of demolishing this man of straw, 
for whom the State authorities are in no sense responsible. The 
disease exists in a comparatively limited area on the Atlantic sea¬ 
board, and its extinction here is a possible and comparatively 
