80 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
in this vicinity is not contagious pleuro-pneuinonia, and adducing 
the evidence of “ The New York College of Veterinary Surgeons” 
and of Professor Williams in support of the assertion. To those 
unacquainted with the facts, the array of apparent authorities 
may doubtless have some weight, and as the acceptance of the 
doctrine might hinder the work of exterminating the plague, some 
notice seems to be demanded, and I crave the boon of making 
the needful rejoinder through your valuable columns. 
Any one, even though he may be an unprofessional man, if 
he can appreciate the relation of cause and effect, may soon satis¬ 
fy himself that we are dealing with a contagious disease He 
has but to make a tour of a few cow stables in New York City 
and vicinity, but especially in N. J., wherein the work of stamp¬ 
ing out has not proceeded so far as with us, and make inquiries of 
the owners. He will find numerous instances in which herds that 
were sound until the introduction of a new purchase, were in¬ 
fected by the new animal, and not only lost many of their num¬ 
ber, but became centers of infection for adjacent herds. For any 
one acquainted with the facts to deny contagion, is simply to con¬ 
fess himself unable to sift evidence and reach truth. At Bliss- 
ville distillery stables, after the owners had culled out all the di¬ 
seased they knew of in anticipation of a State inspection, we had 
to condemn and send to the offal dock nearly one-tenth of all ani¬ 
mals on the place. In the Prospect Park herd the disease prevailed 
last September, and we found that nearly all the cow stables in 
the neighborhood were infected later in the autumn. It was in this 
vicinity (Fifteenth Street) that I had the first cow slaughtered on 
February 8th, and several others have been lost in the same and 
adjacent stables since. New Lots we found to have been most 
extensively infected last autumn, and here too we have had to 
kill a number to stay the plague. In the vicinity of Mineola, 
Hempstead and Iioslyn, we find that the disease existed most 
extensively last year as the result of the introduction of infected 
cattle, whereas already we have reason to believe there is scarcely 
a centre of infection remaining. The widest extension of the 
infection has always coincided with the mild season, (summer and 
autumn) when cattle run at pasture, and too often mingle freely 
