162 
PLEUROPNEUMONIA. 
the west; and unless measures more efficient than any heretofore 
adopted are soon made operative, it is but a question of time 
when the whole country will be in New Jersey’s mpst unfortunate 
position. 
It is hardly necessary to tell the members of the profession 
in America, who know so well the ability of foreign veterinari¬ 
ans, and their determination to prevent the importation of infec¬ 
tious diseases, that anything which endangers the health of our 
live stock promises to be disastrous to our export trade in cattle. 
Even granting that pleuro-pnenmonia does not spread to the 
west, cattle shipped to New York, Philadelphia or Baltimore are 
in danger of becoming infected while en passage to the points of 
debarkation, and the veterinary surgeon who represents otherwise 
is willing to sacrifice an honest expression of opinion to the pub¬ 
lic demand for an unimpeded traffic in live stock. 
\ 
That proper steps have been taken to eradicate contagious 
pleuro-pneumonia from New Jersey cannot be claimed by any 
one who knows the nature of the disease and the methods at¬ 
tempted to be enforced. Prior to the commencement of my 
labors in that State, the authorities consented to the proposition 
that all cases of the disease should either be killed and buried, or 
in case they were fat, slaughtered for food ; and that those cattle 
belonging to the herds infected, but not } T et diseased, be kept 
under strict quarantine until such time as all danger had passed 
away. Even the propriety of killing all the animals in an in¬ 
fected herd was favorably discussed in conjunction with the 
question as to whether the law could be so construed as to permit 
its being done. Inoculation was conceded to be an unwarranted 
practice under the circumstances and was at once prohibited. No 
one can deny that the outlook was most favorable as presented at 
this stage of affairs ; but subsequent events determined that vac- 
cillation, not steadfastness of purpose, was the principal charac¬ 
teristic of the power which attempted to accomplish an end 
without any knowledge of the controlling laws of cause and 
effect. 
On or about the 9th of April a herd of fourteen cattle in 
Morris County were visited for the express purpose of disposing 
