122 
PLEUROPNEUMONIA. 
never given it as his opinion that more than one has had pleuro-pueumonia. 
Owing partly to an indisposition on the part of a majority of the Commis¬ 
sioners, and partly to a difficulty to find a suitable place, no more cows were 
exposed till the fourteenth. After the cow at Newtonville was taken sick, she 
was carried to Weston and exposed for several days to two cows brought from 
Upton, and after the exposure taken back to Newtonville. Neither of the Upton 
cows had shown any symptoms of the malady up to the time the disease was • 
discovered on Deer Island, (nearly three months) and it was thought best to 
expose them to an animal from that herd. Accordingly, Dr. Thayer selected an 
animal which he pronounced perfect for the purpose, had it carried to Newton 
and exposed the cows there to his satisfaction, when the animal was killed 
and found to have had the disease in its worst form. It is supposed that there 
has not been sufficient time since the last exposure to indicate the effect.“ 
To sum up the result, we have exposed in the manner I have stated six 
cows; only one has had the disease. Three of them have had the double expo¬ 
sure of having two cows affected with the disease tied on either side of them 
for twenty-four hours, in such a manner as to make it certain that they should 
inhale the breath of the sick ones, eat the food that the sick one had breathed 
upon, and also of being kept in the stable with oue diseased cow through the 
whole course of her sickness, with the exception of two or three days. In about 
twenty days from the time the cow brought from Maine was taken sick, Dr. 
Thayer told me she gave about the same quantity of milk that she did before 
her sickness, which certainly was a little singular, as every farmer knows that 
if, from any cause, a cow falls of! in her milk for any considerable number of 
days it is not often she comes up to the same mark without a change in the feed, 
and there was no change in this case. 
Such are all the facts bearing upon the points named in the first part of this 
report which I have been able to gather. Meagre, I know them to be ; so mea¬ 
gre that he must be a rash man who would attempt to build auy theory thereou. 
It would seem to me that they rather tend to a disbelief in the present popular 
theory in regard to the disease than to furnish the material to build a new one. 
But I do not feel that I am wholly at fault that they are comparatively so uuirn- 
portant; more than ouce have I proposed that we call to our aid some man of 
acknowledged medical skill and scientific ability. But all such propositions 
have ever met with disapproval. It certainly is consistent in him who has no 
faith in medicine to refuse to call a physician, and equally so in him who be¬ 
lieves he knows as much as any one, to ask advice of others. 
I do not hesitate to say then that the experiment at Newtonville has proved 
of comparatively little value. My associates have no faith in the use of medi¬ 
cine for the disease, and still more, they think that he who is not already satis¬ 
fied that the only proper treatment of a herd affected is to have it immediately 
slaughtered, is not worthy of the pains it would require to convince him. Men 
having such views cannot be expeeted to carry on an experiment with that in¬ 
terest necessary to elicit the truth; nor can it be expected that farmers who 
•Since writing the foregoing, I learn from Dr. Thayer that the “Upton cows” were 
exposed to the animal from Deer Island for two weeks, it having been tied between them 
during the whole of that time. Sixty days have passed since, and neither of the cows has 
shown any evidence of having had the disease, unless a slight cough in one of them may be 
considered such. Forty-five days is the extent of time fixed upon as the time of incubation. 
