CONTAGIOUS DISEASES-NECESSITY FCR LEGISLATION. 
323 
one State to another, or over the whole United States. This dis¬ 
ease lias been in our country a considerable number of years. If 
proper means had been adopted at the time of its incipiency, we 
should never have seen it again, except by new importation ; and 
until proper measures are taken, or Congress enacts laws in rela¬ 
tion to trade and traffic between the States of the Union, we shall 
continue to suffer from it. One of the greatest sources of the 
spread of this disease is the unrestricted trade and traffic in cattle. 
Were proper precautions adopted in this direction, within certain 
limits, and within each State, and a thorough stamping-out process 
inaugurated, we should soon cease to hear of the contagious pleu- 
ro-pneumonia. The invasion of a district or country by pleuro¬ 
pneumonia contagiosa is insidious. The disease commonly escapes 
observation as it steals into a farm or country, and is consequently 
perhaps more destructive than any other known epizootic disease. 
Wherever the diseastd animals have been slaughtered early, as in 
some European countries, the disease has not spread ; but where 
months have elapsed before measures have been adopted, it has 
insinuated itself into many parts of the country, and has proved 
most destructive. 
So much has been written in tiie public press on the subject of 
contagious pleuro-pneumonia, its extent and prevalence in our 
seaboard States, that it is unnecessary here to refer further to this 
subject than to suggest the adoption of more stringent measures 
for the thorough extermination of the disease from our land. The 
practice of inoculation provides only a fancied security, and should 
not be entertained for one moment, as it will be a certain means 
of promoting the spread of this disease. The stamping-out pro¬ 
cess is the only effective method of ridding the country of this 
pest; but it must be admitted, greatly to our disadvantage, that 
the progress of extermination is, in some of the affected States, ap¬ 
parently conducted in a very dilatory manner. 
There have been several instances of severe losses among cat¬ 
tle in the State of Illinois, from the Texan cattle fever, occasion 
ed by the transportation of cattle from the Gulf States, during 
the summer months, in defiance of the law forbidding such trans¬ 
portation between the months of March and October. These 
