EXTRA SESSION. 
SENATE....N0. 1. 
dommonwtaltl; of Alassadjusctts. 
In Senate, May 30, 1860. 
Ordered; That the Address of His Excellency the Gov- 
ernor, delivered this day before both branches of the legis- 
lature, together with the accompanying documents, be 
committed to a Joint Special Committe, to consist of seven 
on the part of the Senate, with such as the House may join, 
with instructions to report upon the same, and also to cause 
five thousand copies thereof to be printed for the use of the 
legislature. 
Sent down for concurrence. 
S. N. Gifford, Clerk. 
House of Representatives, May 30, 1860. 
Concurred. 
William Stowe, Clerk. 2 
ADDRESS. 
[May, 
ADDRESS. 
Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:- 
The attention of the legislature was directed, during its 
late session, to the ravages inflicted upon the cattle of some 
parts of the Commonwealth, by a distemper, closely resem- 
bling in its appearance and effect, the disease called Pleuro- 
pneumonia. A statute approved on the last day of the 
session provided for the appointment of three commissioners, 
who were required according to the provisions of the Act, 
to provide for the extirpation of this disease. They were 
authorized and required to visit without delay the several 
places in the Commonwealth where the disease was known 
or suspected to exist, and were empowered to cause all 
cattle which had been diseased, or had belonged to diseased 
herds, to be forthwith killed and buried, and the premises 
where they were kept, cleansed and purified ; to appraise in 
their discretion, the value of the cattle killed which were 
apparently well, and certify to the Governor and Council 
the allowances made to the owners of the cattle respectively, 
and to give such lawful orders and directions as in their 
judgment, the public necessity might require. It was pro- 
vided that the statute should continue in force for the term 
of one year. 
Immediately upon the adjournment of the legislature, 
commsisions were issued under the provisions of the Act, to I860.] 
SENATE-No. 1. 
3 
Richard S. Fay, Esq., of Lynn, Paoli Lathrop, Esq., of Hadley, 
and Hon. Amasa Walkey, of Brookfield. These gentlemen 
entered at once upon the performance of their duties. 
After some progress had been made, Mr. Fay, from the 
pressure of private engagements, withdrew from the com- 
mission, and the vacancy was supplied by the appointment 
of George B. Loring, Esq., of Salem, Mr. Lathrop, of South 
Hadley, acting as chairman. The Commissioners have been 
assisted in their labors by Dr. Thayer, Dr. Dadd, Dr. Bates, 
and other gentlemen of established reputation as veterinary 
surgeons. 
A detailed report of the operation of the Commissioners 
under the statute, is herewith communicated to the legisla- 
ture. It appears that all suspected herds have been ex 
amined, and many cattle have been isolated by order of the 
Commissioners. Eight hundred and forty-two have been 
slaughtered, for which compensation has been allowed by the 
Commissioners to the amount of $20,432.83. No report, 
however, of allowances made to the owners of cattle, has 
been received, and no money has been drawn under the 
statute, from the treasury. The appropriation of $10,000 
made by the legislature, was very soon exhausted. The 
labors of the Commissioners would have been at once 
brought to a close, but the distemper continuing to 
spread, and the public mind becoming more excited in 
the districts where its ravages were chiefly confined, and 
where it seriously affected, and seemed to threaten the 
destruction of the principal occupation and support of the 
people, many generous and public spirited citizens, repre- 
senting different business interests, voluntarily subscribed to 
a fund which was intended to enable the Commissioners to 
continue their work, notwithstanding the failure of the 4 
ADDRESS. 
[May, 
appropriation, and to guaranty all parties concerned against 
loss, in case the legislature should fail to recognize and 
provide for the unauthorized expenditure of money. 
Subscriptions to the amount of nearly $20,000 were at 
once made, and the Commissioners, under the protection of 
this guaranty, made some further progress. But the disease 
had spread over a larger territory than was at first supposed. 
Moro definite instructions from the legislature as to the 
course to be pursued were desired. It was believed that 
more stringent regulations than those allowed by the Act 
of April 4, 1859, were required, and that additional appro- 
priatons from the treasury might be indispensable. 
On the 18th of May, the Commissioners made a formal 
request that an extra session of the legislature should be 
called. This request was supported by a petition of a com- 
mittee of the State Board of Agriculture, by several mem- 
bers of the Board, and by many influential and honorable 
citizens of different parts of the Commonwealth. On the 
24th day of May, the proclamation was issued by and with 
the advice and consent of the Council, for a session of the 
legislature for the consideration of this special subject. 
Copies of these papers are herewith transmitted. 
Two considerations alone have impelled me, with very 
great reluctance, to summon the members of the two houses 
from their homes at this season of the year. The first has 
reference to the magnitude of the interest involved. It is 
not a disaster affecting Massachusetts or New England alone. 
If the contagion is allowed to spread without effort to extir- 
pate or restrain it, ultimately it must ravage the whole 
country. The neat cattle in the United States, in 1850, 
numbered eighteen million three hundred and seventy-eight 
thousand (18,378,000). Estimating the number at the I860.] 
SENATE-No. 1. 
5 
present time, upon this basis, by adding twenty per cent, to 
the number, as the natural increase in ten years, it will 
now exceed twenty-two million. 
The number of milch cows returned to the census bureau 
for 1850 was over six million, and the number of working- 
oxen was nearly a million and three-quarters. The value 
of butter, cheese, and milk not used for butter or cheese, 
returned in 1850 as a portion of the agricultural product, 
according to the estimate of Professor Tucker, exceeded 
eighty million dollars. To this must be added an equal sum, 
as the value of cattle slaughtered for the market, and the 
value of the labor of nearly a million yoke of working oxen 
at the present time,-estimating their labor for a year at 
twenty dollars per yoke,-and the aggregate value of this 
yearly product exceeds one hundred and eighty million 
dollars. There is but one agricultural product of equal 
importance-that of Indian corn. 
To the aggregate thus stated must be added the value of 
the cattle themselves, which, estimated at twenty dollars 
per head, amounts to nearly three hundred and seventy 
million dollars. Thus, upon the basis of the census of 1850, 
this interest involved a value of product and property equal to 
five hundred and forty million dollars. The average increase 
in ten years, may be safely estimated at twenty per centum, 
and this would make the same values equal, for the present 
year, to six hundred and forty million dollars. But these 
figures very imperfectly represent the interest of the Amer- 
ican people in this gigantic industrial product. How far 
it enters into the employment of the great majority of per- 
sons,-how many millions are dependent upon it for the lux- 
uries and necessities of life,-to what extent it contributes, 
indirectly, to public health and enjoyment, and how large a 6 
ADDRESS. 
[May, 
part it forms of the sound and reliable business of the 
country, are considerations which naturally occur tb the 
mind of every intelligent person. 
If we could confine the ravages of the fatal distemper so 
unfortunately deposited upon our shores, to our own State, 
it would still be of sufficient importance to demand the 
earnest attention of the people. But, unless extirpated on 
the instant when it appears, it cannot be so confined. If it 
spread over our own territory, it must ravage other States, 
and it becomes a duty of the highest character, one which 
we owe alike to ourselves, to the honor of Massachusetts, 
and to the people of the whole country, to make every avail- 
able and possible effort to restrain its ravages, if extirpation 
is impossible. Admitting, if need be, that it is doubtful 
whether it partakes more of the character of a contagion or 
an epidemic,-admitting that it may not be in our power to 
prevent its spreading through the country,-nevertheless, 
every citizen of Massachusetts should have it in his power 
to say, that every proper effort had been made by the State, 
to produce that result. I am constrained to express the 
opinion, that all has not yet been done which may be wisely 
if not successfully performed, and this fact I offer to you as 
a chief reason for this extraordinary convocation. 
A second consideration of nearly equal weight relates to 
the Act of the last session, and the proceedings of the Com- 
missioners under that Act. The design of the Act was mani- 
festly to provide for the extirpation of the disease. It had 
little reference to treatment, or the possibility of cure, but 
considered extirpation as the proper remedy. It th srefore 
authorized the Commissioners to visit the several places in 
the Commonwealth where the disease might be known or 
suspected to exist, and to cause all cattle belonging to herds I860.] 
SENATE-No. 1. 
7 
in which the disease had appeared, or might appear, or 
which had belonged to herds in which the disease had been 
known to exist, to be forthwith killed and buried, and the 
premises cleaned and purified. 
The method and principle of appraisement of cattle are 
established in the Act, and an appropriation of ten thousand 
dollars was made to meet necessary expenditures. 
Had this couse been adopted at the commencement of the 
year it probably would have been successful. But in April 
the distemper had spread too far. The Commissioners 
speedily exhausted the appropriation, and traces of the dis- 
order were distinctly visible in the neighborhood in which 
they commenced operations. A guarantee fund was imme- 
diately established by citizens of public spirit who knew the 
character of the distemper, and the necessity of instant 
action, to assure the owners of cattle compensation for their 
destruction according to the terms of the Act, which it was 
expected the legislature would re-imburse. Of this fund 
about ten thousand dollars were pledged, but the disease 
was not yet circumscribed. It was manifest that under a 
full appreciation of the extent of the calamity the guaranty 
fund would be increased to any amount necessary to effect 
the desired object. 
But it became a serious question whether in the event of 
large payments being made under an apparent authority of 
law to be ultimately re-imbursed by the State, the legisla- 
ture should not exercise its prerogative power and deter- 
mine in the first instance under what circumstances and to 
what extent money should be expended, and make provision 
both for its appropriation and disbursement. There are no 
more dangerous precedents than those which are established 
under color of law or of public necessity, with the expccta- 8 
ADDRESS 
[May, 
tion of justification and immunity by subsequent legisla- 
tion. The Commissioners were-not authorized to proceed 
beyond the limits fixed by the statute, and their powers 
were in no wise enlarged by the guaranty of influential citi- 
zens. It is true that the legislature would not be bound 
to legalize such proceeding, nor to meet by appropriation 
the sum guaranteed, but such refusal, if it were practicable, 
would be measurably unjust and necessarily cause public 
discontent. The legislature, therefore, must in the end 
have borne the burdens, and assumed all responsibilities, 
leaving to individuals th'e power to determine the extent and 
to direct the execution of all remedial measures. If the 
object could have been attained by a limited subscription, 
but light objections could be urged against it. That did 
not appear to be the fact, and in order to assure to the rep- 
resentatives of the people the power which legitimately 
belongs to them, it was indispensable that I should summon 
them together. 
I adopted this course as a measure of public economy. 
The statute of April 4th provides, exclusively, for extir- 
pating the disease by slaughter. It is now apparent, in my 
own judgment, that the end desired cannot with any consider- 
able degree of certainty be attained in this manner, and the 
course to be adopted should be one which admits of the 
instant slaughter, or the perfect isolation of suspected or 
diseased cattle. The statute determines that the appraisal 
of a part of the cattle, whose destruction might be ordered, 
should be at what would have been their fair market value 
if the disease had not existed. It is apparent that a dif- 
ferent procedure, and a more equitable principle of appraisal, 
will greatly diminish the drafts upon the treasury. I860.] 
SENATE-No. 1. 
9 
In submitting to the legislature, inquiry as to the course 
of conduct to be adopted, it may be proper to present a few 
suggestions relating to the historical character of this dis- 
temper, and its diagnosis where it is found in the cattle of 
this Commonwealth. 
The exact origin of the disease does not appear to be very 
clearly determined. It is supposed to have been limited for 
a long period of time to the mountainous parts of Europe, 
especially near the Jura, from whence it has been carried to 
Holland, to France, England, Africa, Australia and other 
countries. A disease of a similar character was prevalent 
in England more than a century since. 
It appeared in France about the year 1840, and in Eng- 
land, Scotland and Ireland, the subsequent year. Its rav- 
ages, however, have been most extensive in Holland, from 
whence it has been carried into Germany and Southern 
Africa. 
The ravages of the disease in these countries have been 
fearful. The course of treatment adopted seems to have 
embraced the triple policy of slaughter, isolation and inoc- 
ulation, according to the condition of the animals infected 
or exposed. The loss of cattle by slaughter and by death in 
all these counties has been alarming, and the burdens upon 
the treasuries consequent upon the plan of compensation 
very great. 
In 1847, it was brought from England into New Jersey, 
but its contagious character being at once discovered, it was 
absolutely and immediately extirpated. A like result was 
obtained in Australia, where the disease had been introduced 
by cattle imported from the same country. 
One year ago, the 23d of May, 1859, it was brought into 
this State with an importation of Dutch cattle from Holland, 10 
ADDRESS. 
[May, 
and the distemper at present existing can be traced to no 
other cause than to this importation. The symptoms of the 
disease, in its manifestations in this State, do not essentially 
differ from the description given by English medical authors 
of the disease called Pleuro-Pneumonia as it exists in Eng- 
land. It is not necessary for me to give a detailed state- 
ment of its symptomatic manifestations here. I have the 
honor to transmit to the legislature a very full statement 
upon this subject made by two of the medical examiners 
who attended the Commissioners. 
The inquiry now recurs, what additional measures can 
be taken for the suppression of the distemper, and fulfilling 
the duty we owe to other States ? 
In the first instance, I think the legislature should regu- 
late or prohibit, so far as it can be wisely and properly done, 
the exportation of cattle in which the seeds of the disease 
may possibly exist, from this State into other neighboring 
States. 
This would seem to be a measure which the natural 
comity existing between friendly States would absolutely 
demand. Such a measure would for a brief period-not 
necessarily a long one-interfere with the freedom of trade, 
but it is such an interference as the continued existence of 
the trade in cattle itself requires. A line may easily be 
established, beyond which no cattle shall be passed without 
sufficient official assurances that they do not carry contagion 
with them. 
It would seem to be necessary, in addition to the powers 
conferred upon the Commissioners by existing legislation, 
that there should be a distinct recognition of the policy of 
isolating and separating from contact with other cattle, sus- 
pected or diseased herds, and it may also be expedient to I860.] 
SENATE-No. 1. 
11 
limit the discretionary power of slaughtering condemned 
animals, and also to modify the principle of appraisal hither- 
to established. 
It will also be necessary to provide for the re-imbursement 
or the relief of the subscribers to the guaranty fund, to 
which reference has been made, and also to inquire what 
further appropriation the present public emergency requires. 
It would not seem, if a policy like that heretofore suggested 
should be adopted, that extravagant appropriations would 
be required to carry out the objects specified in the Report 
of the Commissioners. It will be necessary, for a brief 
period at least, to enlarge the powers of towns, so that they 
may protect themselves from invasion by infected cattle, and 
to control the course of the disease when it is discovered 
within their limits. The pressing public necessity that now 
compels towns to act upon this subject for their own protec- 
tion may lead them, in some instances, to go beyond their 
legal powers, and occasion private or public difficulties. 
This should be avoided. There is now no statute law in this 
Commonwealth authorizing towns or town officers to restrict 
or limit the common right of all the inhabitants to pass freely 
from town to town and through any town with their cattle in 
greater or smaller number, for purposes of trade, business, 
or pleasure, over the public highways. 
Cattle found at large in any public highway without a 
keeper, are liable to be impounded. 
The power of towns and cities to make by-laws extends 
only to the directing and managing their prudential affairs, 
preserving the peace and good order, and maintaining their 
internal police. [Revised Statutes chapter 15, section 13. 
Statutes 1847, chapter 262.] 12 
ADDRESS. 
A by-law regulating the mode of securing cattle while 
passing through the town, as for instance, that they 
should be led or driven, tied together, and only in the 
travelled part of the way, so that they could not come in 
contact with other cattle, either in the road or in enclosure 
by the side of the road, might be held to be a reasonable 
order or by-law for the preservation of the peace, good 
order, and internal police of the town. But such by- 
laws would have little efficacy, as they would or might 
differ in every town or city, having no effect beyond the 
limits of the towns enacting them, and must be approved 
by the courts, to give them any validity. 
There is no statute law of this Commonwealth making it 
a criminal offence to sell a sick or diseased animal. Of 
course there may be such fraudulent representations as to 
bring such a transaction within the enactment against 
obtaining money by false pretences, or there may be in 
many cases a civil remedy. Such a sale is not understood 
to be within the meaning of the Revised Statutes, chapter 
131, section 1-sale of diseased, unwholesome, or corrupted 
provisions. This defect in the law, occasions serious difficul- 
ties, and great danger. It enables evil disposed persons 
to spread the contagion, for their own profit without respon- 
sibility to the public for the wrong done. 
If in addition to the powers that may be given to towns, 
other and larger geographical districts are required, exist- 
ing county lines offer convenient and well defined districts 
which may be made instantly available, through their terri- 
torial relations and recognized officers. 
I should also recommend that some measures should be 
taken, to obtain, on a limited scale, a thorough scientific 
investigation of the character of this disease-whether I860.] 
SENATE-No. 1. 
13 
it is a contagion, communicable by contact, or epidemic 
in its nature, transmissible by atmospheric influences 
alone; how far infected animals may be cured, and what 
protection can be afforded to exposed cattle by the process 
of inoculation, so successful in other countries. These 
experiments could be tried without great expense, and 
great public good derived therefrom. 
The transit of cattle through the several towns may 
require more careful regulation than is now provided by 
law. 
It will be for the legislature to determine whether the 
Board of Commissioners should be enlarged by additions 
to its numbers, or strengthened by authority to employ 
assistants, and to act in connection with officers of towns 
and the commissioners of counties. General regulations 
of the character I have suggested, will, I am persuaded, 
prove beneficial to the public interest, if they do not sup- 
press entirely the course of the distemper, without adding 
in any ver^ great degree to the burdens of the treasury. 
If the State shall assume any part of the expenses of 
towns in the execution of the powers conferred upon or 
the duties required of them, a provision that each town 
shall provide for a portion thereof will not only restrain the 
towns from unnecessary expenditures, but reconcile those 
portions of the Commonwealth not immediately infected 
with the disease, to the increased public burdens to which 
they will be subjected; and in such portions of the State 
much scepticism as to the existence of the disease and the 
necessity of the measures adopted, will be found to exist. 
No greater calamity will have fallen upon the industry of 
the Commonwealth than the present, if its course cannot 
be checked. But every public calamity has, in some form, 14 
ADDRESS. 
[May, 
and to an extent which we unwillingly recognize, its com- 
pensations. It is impossible to avoid or to mitigate the 
individual distress or the public inconvenience that it occa- 
sions. But it may lead to such changes in the traditions of 
agricultural industry as will in the end greatly benefit the 
country. In our own case, it forces upon the attention 
other methods of culture than those upon which we have 
exclusively relied. 
It is not possible now to say how soon the farms that 
have been desolated by slaughter or by disease, can be 
restocked with neat cattle. It may be necessary that we 
should return to some customs long since nearly abandoned. 
It is a singular fact, exhibited by the census of 1850, that 
the number of neat cattle in the United States was nearly 
equal to the number of sheep. In our own State, until 
recently, sheep culture, one of the most profitable modes of 
agricultural investment for a country like our own, has 
very greatly diminished. It is probable that there are half 
as many dogs as sheep in the Commonwealth. *If in conse- 
quence of the present disastrous contagion such changes 
shall occur as the careful consideration of the true and solid 
agricultural interests of the Commonwealth may suggest, 
like all the occurrences in human life that are directed by 
the hand of a wise and merciful Providence, it may not be 
found to be altogether unmixed with private and public 
good. 
I shall very cheerfully concur with the legislature in all 
proper measures for the relief and protection of the public 
interests involved, and I commend with great earnestness 
this special subject to the thoughtful, earnest and patriotic 
consideration of the legislature. I860.] 
SENATE-No. 1. 
15 
North Brookfield, May 17, 1860. 
To His Excellency N. P. Banks, Governor of the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts:- 
The undersigned, Commissioners appointed to extirpate the disease 
called Pleuro-Pneumonia, now existing in the Commonwealth, and 
members of a Committee of the State Board of Agriculture, chosen 
to confer with said Commissioners, having satisfied themselves that 
the disease has extended over a broader territory than was at first 
anticipated, and that additional powers and larger appropriations are 
required in order to accomplish the object for which the Commission- 
ers were appointed, would respectfully request that an extra session 
of the legislature be called for the purpose of considering what 
further action may be taken in this trying emergency. 
And they would respectfully represent, that with the aid of prompt 
and immediate legislative action such as the importance of the sub- 
ject demands, the object for which the Commissioners were appointed 
can be speedily accomplished, and a local misfortune can be prevented 
from becoming a wide-spread national calamity. 
PAOLI LATHROP, 
AMASA WALKER, 
GEORGE B. LORING, 
Com missioners. 
WILLIAM S. CLARK, 
JOHN BROOKS, 
CHA'S C. SEWALL, 
Committee of the State Board of Agriculture. 16 
ADDRESS. 
[May, 
STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONERS. 
Boston, May 29, 1860. 
To His Excellency N. P. Banks, Governor of the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts: 
The Commissioners appointed under an Act of the legislature, 
chapter 192, of the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty, 
entitled " An Act to provide for the extirpation of the disease called 
Pleuro-Pneumonia among Cattle," would respectfully report, that- 
Upon receiving their commission, they entered at once upon their 
duty. They ascertained that the facts which had been laid before 
the legislature, and had led to the passage of the Act, were unques- 
tionably still in existence ; and that in Belmont and North Brook- 
field the disease, which has made such ravages among the cattle in 
Europe, had become fixed, and that it had assumed an alarming 
appearance. 
It was early in the summer of 1859 that the disease was brought 
into this State, with some Dutch cattle, imported by Winthrop W. 
Chenery, Esq., of Belmont, who seems to have been for many 
months unaware of its nature, and who attributed it to local causes. 
On the 29th of June, 1859, three calves were sent from Mr. 
Chenery's herd to the farm of Curtis Stoddard, in North Brookfield. 
On the way from the depot in North Brookfield, to Nir. Stoddard's 
farm, one animal appeared to falter, and gave evidence of physical 
disability. He remained but a short time at Curtis Stoddard's, when 
he went to Leonard Stoddard's to be treated for disease ; was there 
a few days; returned to Curtis Stoddard's, and on the 23d of August 
died. While he was at Leonard Stoddard's, he came in contact 
with several cattle, being a portion of the time in the stable with 
them. In about three weeks after his arrival there, two oxen and a 
cow were seized with the disease, and died in ten days. 
From Leonard Stoddard's herd the disease was carried, by sale of 
animals and otherwise, into the herds of A. Olmstead, of New I860.] 
SENATE-No. 1. 
17 
Braintree, A. A. Needham, of New Braintree, C. P. Huntington, of 
North Brookfield,-in all of which it assumed at once a virulent and 
fatal form,-and into many of other herds in the neighborhood, where 
it has raged with less violence, but with equal steadiness. In these 
specified herds, the number of deaths during the autumn and winter, 
and to the present time, has been about forty. * The loss in Mr. 
Chenery's herd since last June, has been about thirty. 
This appeared to be the limit of the disease on the eleventh of 
April, when the Commissioners entered upon their duty. They avaded 
themselves of the best veterinary talent and experience in the State, 
and commenced their investigations. In the herds mentioned above, 
the disease was found in every variety of form,-the chronic case 
with solidified lungs, abscesses, and cysts, and the recent case, with 
its dark and livid hepatization. It had been developing itself for 
many months, and had had time to make sad inroads. 
It was soon found, however, that the disease had extended far 
beyond these limits. It had begun to appear in herds more recently 
exposed; and it was discovered lurking in farms adjoining Mr. Stod- 
dard's, where cattle had come in contact with his during the late fall- 
feeding of last autumn. In these herds there had been no deaths, 
but the miserable animals indicated the existence of the disease in 
their systems, and examinations'after slaughtering showed that ere 
long the mortality must have been very great. Beyond the spot 
where the disease was first planted, in June, 1859, and where ife-has 
committed its greatest ravages, it is now found radiating in every 
direction, covering a very considerable extent of territory, and only 
requiring at its extremest boundary and in cases of recent exposure, 
an equal amount of time to develop the alarming fatality already 
witnessed at Belmont, and in and around Leonard Stoddard's farm 
at North Brookfield. , 
The Commissioners have not failed to find the disease wherever 
there has been exposure; and they are satisfied that it has never 
appeared except as the result of exposure. It was introduced into 
Leonard Stoddard's herd by the calf from Belmont; into Mr. Olm- 
stead's, by oxen bought of Leonard Stoddard; into Mr. Needham's, 
by keeping Stoddard's oxen in his barn; into Mr. Huntington's, by 
the purchase of a cow of Leonard Stoddard; into Mr. Woods's, by 
feeding diseased animals in his barn; into a team of twenty-three 
yoke of oxen, by the pair sold by Stoddard to Olmstead, and by the 
latter to Doane ; into the herd of George Harwood, by working his 18 
ADDRESS. 
[May, 
oxen with Doane's; into J. C. Ayer's, by a heifer purchased of 
Harwood; into Silas H. Bigelow's, by working his oxen with 
Doane's, and by contact with Huntington's; into Benjamin Dean's, 
by frequent contiguity with Bigelow's; into John and Lewis Hill's, 
by contact witli Stoddard's cattle in the field last autumn. A cow, 
bought at Stoddard's auction in November, carried the disease into 
Mr. Richards' stable in West Brookfield, and thence into the large 
and valuable herd of Mr. Cutler, of the same town. From Mr. 
Cutler's it was carried, by contact with a bull, into the adjoining herd 
of Mr. Gilbert. A yoke of oxen, previously exposed to Stoddard's, 
entered the herd of Mr. Gleason, of West Brookfield, about the 
middle of January, remained there until the last of March, poisoned 
the entire herd of Mr. Gleason, and were killed May 14th in the pos- 
session of Mr. Makepeace, and were found extensively diseased,- 
both lungs being hypertrophied, twice the natural size, impervious to 
air throughout a large portion of their extent, and adhered in many 
places. It seems unnecessary to enumerate more cases of the many 
exposures since the disease first appeared, hundreds of which the 
Commissioners have in their possession, and occurring from the first 
introduction of the disease until the present time. 
The disease has been found to exist in North Brookfield, Brook- 
field, West Brookfield, Spencer, Sturbridge, New Braintree, and 
Oakham, to a considerable extent. Cases have been found in Pel- 
ham, carried there from Brookfield, and have been destroyed, it is 
believed, before having exposed more than half a dozen animals, 
now in limits. A cow sent from an infected herd to Ware, was 
found diseased and was killed, with four or five others, her only 
associates there-ending the disease, without doubt, in that quarter. 
A cow has been killed in Hubbardston, that had taken the disease 
from contact during the winter with oxen from North Brookfield, 
found to be infected; and ten animals which she has exposed have 
been placed within limits. Suspicions have arisen with regard to 
Warren, Hardwick, and Barre, but no satisfactory evidence is given 
that the disease exists in those towns. A case has been found in 
Pepperell, sent from West Brookfield ; and another in Malden, sent 
from Mr. Chenery's herd. In the latter of these cases, the exposure 
of other animals seems not to have been extensive; in the former, 
however, the Commissioners regret to say that the exposure has 
been greater. I860.] 
SENATE-No. 1. 
19 
The following is the account of the Commissioners to May 18th, 
1860 
Animals killed, diseased, . . . . . . .185 
Animals exposed, pronounced sound, and killed, 
Cows, 189 
Heifers, 3 years old, .61 
Heifers, 2 years old, 41 
Oxen, 85 
Steers, 3 years old, ........ 54 
Steers, 2 years old, . . . . . . . .24 
Yearlings, .......... 54 
Calves, 107 
Bulls, ........... 9 
Animals not described, ........ 33 
Total, 842 
The appraised value of all these animals, sound and diseased, is 
$20,432.83. 
It is estimated that the number of animals diseased, exposed and 
suspected, is as follows:- 
North Brookfield, ........ 350 
South Brookfield, ........ 220 
West Brookfield, ......... 60 
Oakham, .......... 50 
New Braintree, ......... 255 
Sturbridge, . . . . . . . . . .50 
Spencer, .......... 50 
Hubbardston, . . . . . . . . .10 
Pelham, .......... 10 
Total, . . . . • . . 1,055 
These animals, the Commissioners have endeavored in every pos- 
sible manner to isolate. In many cases single animals are kept 
separate from all others. Farms vacated by slaughter, have been 
occupied by animals immediately surrounding them, in order to 
prevent the passage of the contagion into pastures a second remove 20 
ADDRESS. 
[May, 
beyond. And every temporary expedient has been resorted to, for 
the purpose of checking the disease, until the Commissioners shall 
receive that aid, which is necessary for the carrying out of the Act, 
under which they were appointed. 
It will be remembered that the Commission was established by an 
Act providing for the extirpation of the disease among cattle, called 
Pleuro-Pneumonia. No other power was conferred by the Act, and 
it is reasonable to suppose that the legislature which passed the Act 
felt satisfied that no other effectual remedy for the disease had been 
found to exist. That the disease was highly contagious, every scien- 
tific man and every farmer in Europe, who had observed it, knew 
too well. All that medicinal agents had accomplished, was to prove 
that no remedies of that character would reduce the percentage of 
deaths in the infected herds. Inoculation alone had not been found 
to produce any effect in checking the ravages of the disease; and 
even this desperate measure had not, after many years' trial, eradi- 
cated the evil. The pathological phenomena of the disease has been 
carefully investigated by the best science in Europe, and had been 
recorded for the benefit of the most ardent scientific curiosity in this 
country. The experience of cattle-husbandmen in Africa and- Aus- 
tralia, whither the disease had been carried from Holland, had 
proved that extirpation and isolation alone could stay it. Quaran- 
tines and hospitals seemed to be the expensive advantages required 
by the enthusiastic explorer-entire destruction the remedy demanded 
by the practical farmer. It was evident that a disease which could 
be carried in the system for months, and could be borne from one 
end of the earth to the other, a disease whose contagiousness is not 
known to be confined to any particular stage, a disease which even 
when not fatal, is sure to leave its mark behind to depress and ener- 
vate,-it was evident that such a disease could not be trifled with, 
nor the possible danger of its escape be incurred, for the benefit of 
experiment however well conducted. For the safety of the great 
agricultural interest of Massachusetts, and to preserve our country 
from a calamity whose consequences can hardly be estimated, the 
Act of extirpation was passed by the Massachusetts legislature. 
It is on account of their inability to carry out the design of the 
legislature, under the Acts touching this matter, that the Commis- 
sioners joined with many citizens and a committee of the State 
Board of Agriculture, in a petition for an extraordinary session. The 
appropriation already made, has proved wholly inadequate. It has I860.] 
SENATE-No. 1. 
21 
been only through the promise of a liberal guaranty fund, and a fair 
cooperation on the part of the farmers interested, that the work has 
progressed to its present condition. The powers of the Commis- 
sioners have been found to be insufficient. It is physically impos- 
sible for them to contend with the evil, without authority to employ 
agents in the various infected regions. They require, moreover, the 
assistance of town authorities, in establishing sanitary regulations 
and a sanitary police. And as many portions of the Commonwealth 
are exposed to the disease, by the passage of cattle from pasture to 
pasture, it would seem necessary that power be conferred for the 
formation of a cordon where required, either by extirpation or by 
such other means as may be deemed expedient. 
The magnitude of the evil is too well known to require any addi- 
tional statement from the Commissioners. They are fully aware of 
the large interests involved, and of the extent of the calamity should 
they fail in their labors. And while they would leave it to higher 
authority to decide whether the course already adopted shall be con- 
tinued, or some other plan be adopted, they would express then* 
confidence in the possibility of arresting the disease, whenever the 
employment of vigorous and active measures is authorized. 
PAOLI LATHROP. 
GEO. B. LORING. 
AMASA WALKER. 22 
ADDRESS 
[May, 
DIAGNOSIS. 
The symptoms of the disease called Pleuro-Pneumonia, described 
by English authors, do not essentially differ from those of the 
animals affected by the disease in this country. 
Amongst the signs or symptoms are these: if the animals are at 
pasture at the commencement of the disease, they will be found, 
early in the morning, separated from the herd, with arched backs, 
coats staring, and refusing to eat; while, as the day advances, they 
will join the rest, and appear to be in usual health. 
A slight but husky cough will be occasionally recognized; and, at 
times the breathing will be increased, as if the animal had made some 
extra exertion; and in milch cows there will also be a diminished 
amount of milk. 
As the disease progresses, the cough becomes more frequent and 
husky ; the respiration is humid ; the pulse increased and somewhat 
oppressed ; the appetite diminished ; rumination suspended ; bowels 
constipated ; surface of the body and limbs cold; the skin rigid and 
almost immovable over the ribs; the animal, on pressure upon the 
spine, flinches, and is unable to bear pressure or percussion on the 
sides of the chest or costal regions. 
Tn more advanced stages, the respiration is difficult, labored and 
painful. The animal frequently lies down; and when standing, the 
head is protruded, the mouth covered with frothy saliva, the muzzle 
cold, and the aspect spiritless and haggard. 
On striking or percussing the affected side, a dull or dead sound 
is usually elicited to a greater or less extent, but this will depend 
upon the extent to which the lung has become consolidated, and the 
presence or absence of fluid in the cavity of the chest. On applying 
the ear to the sides of the chest, one or the other is found to be 
affected; sometimes, though rarely, both are implicated. When 
applied in the region of the diseased part, the ear fails to perceive the 
low, rustling murmur of healthy lungs, and detects a crepitating sound I860.] 
SENATE-No. 1. 
23 
or rattle, which, as the case advances towards an unfavorable termi- 
nation, becomes duller, and, at last, is altogether inaudible. 
An examination of animals, which have died of the disease called 
Pleuro-Pneumonia, will present various appearances. The lungs of 
the same animal will show all the different stages of the disease;-■ 
red hepitization, dark spots, and an effusion of serum. 
The serial poison, whatever may be its nature, being carried by 
the ordinary process of respiration into the air cells of the lungs, 
exerts its baneful influence upon the blood as it circulates through 
the capillaries. 
The amount of the poisonous matter received at each inspiration 
is not sufficient to interrupt at once the functions of the lungs; for 
were this the case, death would speedily take place from asphyxia. 
We have constant proofs that the disease is partial in its attack, and 
insidious in its nature, making its way stealthily. Very often it is 
unobserved until it has made great ravages on the constitution of 
the animal. 
The component parts of the lungs are held together by an inter- 
stitial areolar tissue, of very minute net-work; and when the red 
corpuscles of the blood escape from the capillaries by the rupture 
of their coats, this texture retains these bodies in its meshes, and 
assists in producing the dark color of the isolated patches. 
This color depends in part, also, on the distending of many of 
the capillaries, almost to bursting, by the red corpuscles. The united 
pressure of the overloaded vessels and of the infiltrated interlobular 
and interstitial tissues compresses the air cells, and prevents the 
entrance of the atmospheric air into them; hence the absence in 
advanced stages of Pleuro-Pneumonia, of the respiratory sound in the 
affected parts. 
The extreme dark shade of the color of some of the patches 
proceeds from the same cause; for the pigment of the accumulated 
corpuscles, in consequence of the exclusion of the oxygen of the air 
from the cells, cannot be decarbonized. It is difficult to explain the 
precise changes which take place in the blood resulting from the 
operation of the aerial poison ; but it appears that the vitality of the 
fibrin is interfered with, and that this with the albuminous constitu- 
ents of the fluid, altered also in quality, is transuded from the capil- 
lary vessels, and finds its way into the areolar tissue of the lungs, 
accumulating where this tissue exists in great abundance,-in the 
interlobular spaces; this inordinate transudation seems to depend on 24 
ADDRESS. 
[May, 
a tendency in the blood to separate into its several constituents, 
arising probably from the diminished vital force of the fibrin, and 
an obstruction to the conversion of the albumen of the serum into 
fibrin. The fibrino-albuminous portion of the fluid is thus changed 
and probably augmented, and their exudation is a natural conse- 
quence of such condition. 
The red corpuscles being in part deprived of the liquor san- 
guineous in which they float, are retained in the capillaries, where 
they accumulate in unlimited number, and obstruct their passage 
and compress the air cells which they surround, so as to stay the 
entrance of the air, and produce, as elsewhere stated, the dark 
colored spots which stud the lungs; it is these effusions and the 
obstructed condition of the vessels which gives bulk, increased 
weight and solidity to the lungs, and destroys their function as 
aerating organs. 
The blocking up of the air cells, vessels, &c., destroys these 
structures; and when this is partial and of little extent, portions of 
the lung will become detached, and be inclosed in sacks formed 
by the adhesive stage of the subsequent inflammation. 
This will also explain how it is that collections of pus and other 
morbid products are occasionally observed in post mortem examina- 
tions of long existing cases of Pleuro-Pneumonia. 
It ought not, therefore, to be a matter of surprise, nor to cast 
opprobrium on veterinary science, that an affection which depends 
on an impoisoned atmosphere, and is associated with such extensive 
lesions of organs so essential to health, and which stealthily wends 
its way and saps the very vitals, should prove so destructive to 
life and likewise resist the most vigorous and scientific treatment. 
E. F. THAYER, V. S. 
GEORGE BATES, M. D. I860.] 
SENATE-No. 1. 
25 
Number and Product of Neat Cattle, 1850. 
Number of milch cows,* ...... 6,385,094 
working oxen,* ...... 1,700,744 
other cattle,* ...... 10,293,069 
Total neat cattle, 18,378,907 
Value of butter, 313,345,000 lbs.,f . • . $56,402,000 00 
cheese, 165,535,000 lbs.,f . . . 8,216,000 00 
milk,f 16,000,000 00 
labor of oxen, 850,000 yoke, at $20 per 
yoke, ...... 17,007,000 00 
slaughtered animals, deducting sheep and 
swine,* ...... 75,000,000 00 
$172,625,000 00 
Value of neat cattle, 18,378,000, at $20 per head, 367,560,000 00 
Total value of product and property, . . $540,185,000 00 
Total value in 1860, at an estimated increase of 20 
per cent., ....... $648,222,000 00 
* Compend Census 1850, p. 174. 
t Tucker's Progress of Population in U. S., pp. 63, 64.