CATTLE DISEASE. 
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER 
TO THE 
GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS. 
STEAM PRESS OF BAILHACHE A BAKER. 
SPRINGFIELD: 
1860. CATTLE DISEASE. 
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER 
TO THE 
GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS. 
STEAM PRESS OF BAILHACHE & BAKER. 
SPRINGFIELD: 
1860. PROCLAMATION. 
To the People of the State of Illinois: 
Whereas, an epidemic, called “pleuro-pneumonia,” highly contagious and fatal 
in its character, is now prevailing to such an extent among the Cattle of several of 
the Eastern States of the Union, as to excite great fear and apprehension that its 
destructive ravages may spread over the whole country unless prompt and efficient 
precautionary measures are taken to stop its devastations; and whereas, the people 
of the State of Illinois are especially interested in using all possible care to keep this 
disastrous plague from among the large and valuable herds of cattle in our State ; 
and whereas, I have been requested by many good citizens of the State to take some 
official action towards averting the danger of such disease in our midst: 
Now, therefore, I, John Wood, Governor of the State of Illinois, in order to guatd 
against all possibility of infection, whether by accident, carelessness or design, do 
hereby recommend and request that all farmers, drovers, merchants, and citizens 
generally, of the State of Illinois, shall not purchase or import into this State, any 
cattle, already subject to, or infected with this disease, or which have been in any- 
way exposed to such contagion, or from any State or region of country where such 
disease exists, or is supposed to exist, or into which the same is liable to spread by 
reason of its contiguity to the infected districts; and I further recommend and re- 
quest all owners, officers and agents of steamboats, canals and railroads, and all 
common carriers of stock, to refuse to transport any cattle into this State which may 
be so diseased or infected, or suspected of the same, or which may come from such 
infected or suspected districts ; and I further recommend and request that all Agri- 
cultural Societies, farmers and citizens carefully watch any appearance of such dis- 
ease, or danger of the same, and should any appear, promptly communicate a full 
and detailed report of all the facts to John P. Reynolds Esq., Secretary of the 
State Agricultural Society, at Springfield, Illinois. 
I have commissioned and empowered Dr. Andrew McFarland, of this State, to 
proceed to the States and regions of country where said cattle disease exists, and 
to collect all facts and information to be obtained in relation to the disease, its treat- 
ment, cure and proper method of arresting its spread, and I have directed that he 
shall make such information public at his earliest convenience. 
Having no direct or official authority to take more peremptory measures, I request 
the zealous and earnest voluntary co-operation of all good citizens, and particularly 
of all Agricultural Societies of this State, to arrest this epidemic, the careless or ac- 
cidental introduction of which would destroy millions of dollars worth of our prop- 
erty, ruin one of the most important and remunerative staples of our commerce, and 
paralyze the energies of our farmers who are already suffering from the repeated 
failures of their crops. 
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the groat 
[l. s.] seal of State to be hereunto affixed. Done at the City of Springfield, this 
22d day of June, A. D. 1860. 
By the Governor, JOHN WOOD. 
0. M. Hatch, Secretary of State. EEPO T. 
To His Excellency, John Wood, 
Governor of the State of Illinois : 
Ilonoi'ed Sir:—While at the East to attend the annual meet- 
ing of the American Association of Superintendents of Insane 
Hospitals, I found myself, after its adjournment, in Boston, just 
at the time the Massachusetts Legislature had convened in extra 
session to devise further measures for the arrest of an alarming 
distemper among cattle, then prevalent in a certain district of 
the State. I found that Commissioners had already arrived from 
the States ot Hew York, Ohio and Bhode Island, appointed 
by the authorities of those States, to investigate and report 
upon the subject, then beginning to arouse a national interest. 
Extraordinary facilities were being afforded these gentlemen 
to prosecute their investigations. They were allowed seats on 
the floor of the House during the interesting examination of 
witnesses, veterinary surgeons, and gentlemen of science, 
and it was known that when they should proceed into the in- 
fected district, they would be accompanied by the Massachu- 
setts Board of Commissioners, and a corps of veterinary sur- 
geons, who would select, slaughter, and demonstrate, in the 
amplest manner. Perceiving that at no possible future period 
could such facilities occur to become acquainted with a subject 
which I felt sure would compel the attention of the citizens of 
this State, which stands second to no other in the magnitude 
of its cattle interest, I announced myself as the cultivator of 
a farm belonging to the State of Illinois, and, with that simple 
credential, was admitted to all the privileges, and shared all 
the courtesies which the other gentlemen were receiving. Af- 
ter listening to the thorough investigation of the subject by the 
Legislature, I visited the section of country where the disease 
exists, in company with about twenty other gentlemen, where 
the examination of cases was as complete as science and sur- 6 
gical experience could make it. Collecting in this manner an 
abundance of notes, observations, and documentary matter of 
an interesting character, I was prepared to lay the subject be- 
fore the State Agricultural Society, in the form of an essay for 
its published transactions. I was also furnished, from various 
quarters, with specimens of the diseased lungs, showing the 
form in which the disease commits its ravages upon the ani- 
mal, which, being brought with me, preserved in spririts, may 
be seen at the State Hospital for the Insane, by those curious 
in such matters. Although, could a selection have been made, 
some one might have been commissoned better able to collect 
the facts, yet such an opportunity would in all probability, 
never again occur, and my attention to it had the somewhat 
compensating advantage, that it is attended with no cost to the 
State. Your commission, issued since my return, upon a 
knowledge of these opportunities enjoyed, is of course retro- 
spective in its intent, and simply gives me the advantage of 
reporting on the subject sooner, and in a more agreeable form 
than I had at first contemplated. 
The disease, somewhat unfortunately called Plettro-Pxett- 
monia, is not new. Scattering cases, closely resembling the 
same disease in the human subject, have long been known to 
veterinary surgeons. In the cases hitherto known, it consists 
in a simple inflammation of the substance of the lungs and 
their enveloping membranes, sometimes terminating fatally by 
mere excess of inflammation, but more commonly having no 
more serious consequences than the throwing out of a quanti- 
ty of serum, or thin watery matter in the cavities in which the 
lungs repose, producing some difficulty in breathing for a sea- 
son, and then gradually passing off with no further trouble. 
Cases of this kind are, without doubt, occurring in all consid- 
erable herds of cattle, especially in the Spring season, and at- 
tract little attention, having in them no elements of malignity 
or contagiousness. But, you are aware that it is a law attend- 
ing many forms of disease common to the human family, that 
what we are accustomed to regard as a simple malady as it or- 
dinarily appears to us, sometimes assumes the form of a devas- 
tating scourge, sweeping out of existence multitudes of human 7 
beings, and then disappearing as mysteriously as it came. The 
Massachusetts cattle disease has no more resemblance to the 
ordinary pleuro-pneumonia than Asiatic cholera has to an or- 
dinary cholera morbus, or than the fatal influenza of 1842-3 
bore to influenzas as they ordinarily appear. 
The natural home of this disease, where it first began to 
attract the attention of the world, is in the mountainous dis- 
tricts of South Eastern France, Switzerland, Piedmont, and 
the contiguous countries. Sequestered and isolated valleys, 
in the immediate vicinity of lofty mountain ranges, appear, for 
a long period, to have been the only districts where this dis- 
ease especially exhibited its fatal nature. In the general break- 
up of boundaries and customs lines incident on the French 
Revolution of 1789, and in the transportation of army sup- 
plies for the war ©f twenty years following, the disease broke 
through its natural boundaries, and began to make its appear- 
ance in countries where it had hitherto been unknown, and 
showing, according to authority which appears beyond a ques- 
tion, almost precisely the same features which we recognize in 
the disease now prevailing in Massachusetts. It appears to 
me to be one of the best proofs of its contagious nature, that 
in its progress, it goes step by step, and not with the Hying 
sweep that marks an epidemic which is not dependent on con- 
tagion alone. 
In 1828 the disease had appeared in Belgium, where, from 
its devastating nature, it at once attracted the attention of gov- 
ernment. According to good authority, the Belgian govern- 
ment spends annually about $20,000 for cattle destroyed in 
holding the disease in check. In the Netherlands, according 
to the reports of ascientihc French Commission, the losses are 
immense, and, as illustrative of the views there taken of the 
subject, it is stated in the same connection, that in seventeen 
Communes there was paid during a period of nineteen years, 
the sum of $10,400,000. The payment of this enormous sum 
would be incredible, if it was not stated by the best authority. 
It shows what momentous interest the subject has excited 
where the ravages of the disease have been experienced. 
The disease had reached England in 1841, where it has 8 
since existed with greater or less inveteracy acccording to the 
activity and success of the means resorted to for its suppress- 
ion. Duringthe last winter, (1859-60) it appeared with great 
virulence among the herds of the London dairymen, especially 
on the South side of the Thames. According to the newspa- 
per accounts, the disease is unquestionably the malignant 
Pleuro-Pneumonia, and has caused the alarming mortality of 
95 per cent, of the herds infected—almost their entire extinc- 
tion. 
Pev. Daniel Lindley, an American Missionary among the 
Zulus in South Africa, now on a visit to this country, gives in 
his testimony before the Legislature of Massachusetts, an ac- 
count of the introduction of the the Cape Col- 
onists. I wish that space allowed my quoting Mr. Lindley’s 
testimony entire, as the circumstances of the cattle herds of 
South Africa, in theiPwant of isolation, are closely similar to 
those of the prairie districts of the West. 
The disease was imported into South Africa in the body of 
a bull, brought from Holland about six years ago. In that in- 
stance, as in Massachusetts, no alarm was at first felt. The 
animal had been two months on it passage, and did not ap- 
pear positively diseased for six weeks after landing. It died, 
after communicating the disease to several other cattle, and 
from the total want of isolating conveniences, the disease was 
scattered in every direction. He says: “ I can affirm without 
hesitation, that where it has got into a herd of cattle, not 
more than five out of a hundred have been spared. Occa- 
sionally one has passed through, and has not had the disease, 
at all; and a few on the other hand (two or three in a hun- 
dred) have recovered, and no more. I know of one man wffio 
had five hundred head of cattle, and the disease got in, and 
he had not five left.” 
The disease spread the more rapidly, according to Mr. Lind- 
ley, from the belief at first entertained that it wTas not conta- 
gious. Among the instances -which he quotes of its conta- 
giousness and fatality, I select the following: 
“Two natives were trading, and brought the disease from 
the country where they went, two hundred miles, and set it 9 
down into a perfectly healthy region into a herd of about 
eighty cattle, and there it spread, and they were every one 
carried off.” 
“A native working for an Englishman in an infected dis- 
trict, ignorantly took his pay in two young cattle, which he 
carried into a district, within twenty miles of which the dis- 
ease was totally unknown. These communicated the disease 
to four ‘kraals’ of healthy cattle, 150 head, all of which died. 
The alarm being raised, the natives immediately drove all 
their remaining herds to distant pasturage, where vigilent pa- 
trols saved them from further contamination.” 
Mr. Lindley concludes his testimony, after imparting to the 
Committee much interesting information on the subject, as 
follows: “Were the question asked me, ‘is the disease com- 
municated by contagion V we should say, Yes, and we should 
just as soon doubt that the sun made day-light. There are 
thousands upon thousands of facts to prove it. * * * It 
has been to the country a great scourge. Thousands and 
hundreds of thousands of cattle have died, and many of the 
people have been made poor by the ravages of the disease, 
and the only hope they have of securing a comfortable sub- 
sistence, and recovering their former position in respect to 
property is through sheep. They# have given up all idea of 
grazing cattle, for the disease is so widely spread, and they 
have no hope that it will ever be exterminated.” 
Mr. Lindley, from the novelty and alarming import of his 
testimony, might almost be taken for an alarmist, to a degree 
to impair his credibility; but I am able to state from knowl- 
edge, that he is, on all other subjects, a gentleman of candor 
and moderation in making statements, with no perceivable 
inducements to exaggerate the results of his experience. 
We also have the corroborative testimony of Mr. Ellis, a 
late traveller in South Africa, who, wholly incidentally, al- 
ludes to the cattle disease as the scourge of the country. It 
is furthermore stated by various authorities, that the expedi- 
ent of inoculating healthy animals with portions of the dis- 
eased lungs ot the affected, was finally resorted to in South 
Africa, as the only apparent method of saving the cattle from 10 
total destruction. This process is simply the introduction of 
a bit of diseased lung under the skin at the extremity of the 
tail. When the point of inoculation has festered, if its free 
discharge can be promoted, the animal recovers with only a 
slight constitutional disturbance. If the point of inoculation will 
not discharge, the inflammation extends into the body of the 
animal—producing a case as unfavorable as one taken in the 
natural way. According to Mr. Lindley, the cattle thus saved 
constitute a large proportion of those remaining in the colo- 
n7* 
Another incident in the history of the disease is its appear- 
ance in Australia, in 1857. In this instance the inhabitants 
recognized it at once, and it was not suffered to extend be- 
yond the herd first infected. A meeting of the citizens was 
at once held, who, by resolution, declared “that it is the opin- 
ion of this meeting that the disease in question is contagious 
pleuro-pneumonia, and that if allowed to spread it will be very 
disastrous to the colony. This meeting is of the opinion that 
the cattle should be purchased for the purpose of being de- 
stroyed.” The measures proposed by the meeting were 
unanimously adopted, and the disease thus effectually sup- 
pressed without further extension. 
With these preliminary, observations on the history of this 
disease, and the experience of other countries in its visita- 
tions, wre come to its introduction into our own. 
Winthrop W. Chenery, Esq., a cattle importer of Belmont, 
Mass., received on the 23d of May, 1859, through his agent 
in Holland, three cows and a heifer. They had been landed 
in Boston, after a voyage of forty-seven days from Kotterdam. 
Although purchased in a healthy district, the disease is known 
to exist at the place of embarkation, where they had remained 
several days waiting shipment. They suffered severely on the 
voyage—one of them being unable to stand for twenty days 
before arrival, and another also being much mutilated. One 
of these cows died a week after arrival, and the other two 
days subsequently. 
The other two were then thought to be healthy, and no sus- 
picion had attached to the death of the two first—it being at- 11 
tributed to the effects of the voyage. On the 20th day of June, 
two weeks after the death of the second cow—the third cow 
was found to be sick. She was confined in a stable-pen about 
fifty feet square, with some twenty or thirty other head of cat- 
tle. She died after nine days’ sickness, on the 29th of June. 
In August, another valuable cow, imported from Holland 
seven years previously, sickened and died in a fortnight. 
From that time they sickened and died rapidly, until his loss 
amounted to thirty head. It is not needful to state that all 
these cattle were above the average value, and therefore may 
be supposed to have had all the care their value would war- 
rant. We now leave Mr. Chenery’s herd, to follow the dis- 
ease elsewhere. 
On the 29tli of June—the same day on which the third cowT 
died—Mr. Chenery sold three calves to go to the farm of Mr. 
Curtis Stoddard, of North Brookfield, in the adjoining county 
of Worcester. They went by rail, and on the way from the 
depot to Mr. Stoddard’s farm, one of the calves was observed 
to falter. The animal being found sick, was taken to the farm 
of the father of the purchaser, Mr. Leonard Stoddard, where 
it remained several days, but was finally brought back by 
Curtis Stoddard, at whose farm it died on the 23d of August. 
"While at Leonard Stoddard’s, th6 calf had come in contact 
with several cattle in the same stable. In about three weeks 
after the arrival of the calf at Leonard Stoddard’s—say, about 
the 20th of August—two oxen and a cow were taken with the 
same disease and died in ten days. The disease continued its 
ravages in his herd till he lost fourteen oxen and cows before 
the visit of the Commissioners, and eighteen others were con- 
demned by them as diseased. 
About the first of November, Curtis Stoddard—with a wis- 
dom which we will not stop to question—sold off his stock at 
auction, reserving to himself nine of the most valuable. It is 
said, that up to the time of the auction, he had actually lost 
only the Chenery calf, and he placed the remaining animals 
among his relatives—thus showing, as some contend, his in- 
nocence of the mischief he wras doing. From this auction 
sale of eleven animals, the infection was scattered in every di- 12 
rection. Says one of the Commissioners: “ Without a single 
failure the disease has followed those cattle,—in one case more 
than two hundred cattle having been infected by one which 
was sold at Curtis Stoddard’s auction.” It has been remarked 
before that C. Stoddard reserved nine cattle for himself 
after the auction—probably the most valuable. Yet, when 
the Commissioners came to visit liis herd in the Spring, they 
were all condemned as diseased, and, in the last one of the 
oxen killed, was found a cyst as large as a man’s fist—both 
lungs being alike affected. A portion of one of these lungs 
is in my possession, with its cyst and contents, and will be al- 
luded to again in another connection. 
The spread of the diease from Leonard Stoddard’s was, if 
possible, more tragical still. He kept six or eight oxen which 
he employed in teaming. He was drawing some lumber, and 
stopped oyer night at Mr. Needham’s. Needham lost his 
whole herd. Eight or ten died, seven or eight more condem- 
ned by the Commissioners, and all finally destroyed, in conse- 
quence of that one night’s stay in his barn of the death-bear- 
ing team of Stoddard. To quote from the testimony of Aina- 
sa Walker, Esq., one of the Commissioners, in regard to the 
further spread of the disease: “Mr. Stoddard sold an animal 
to Mr. Woodis. He had twenty-three fine cows. It ruined 
his herd utterly. Seven or eight animals died before the 
Commissioners got there. Mr. L. Stoddard sold a yoke of 
cattle to Mr. Olmstead, one of his neighbors, who had a very 
good herd of cattle. They stayed only five days in his hands, 
when they were passed over to Mr. Doane. In those five 
days they had so infected his herd that it was one of the most 
severe instances of the disease that we have had. The cattle 
that were passed through Mr. Olmstead to Doane, were lent 
to go to the moving of a building from Oakham to North 
Brookfield. They were put in with twenty-two yoke of cattle 
and employed a day and a half. It has proved since, that ev- 
ery one of these cattle took the contagion. They belonged to 
eleven different herds, and each one of these has formed a 
new focus for the spread of the disease.” 13 
During the progress of these events, so calculated to excite 
consternation, the Legislature of Massachusetts was assembled 
at its regular session, and the alarming spread of this myste- 
rious scourge was made to arrest its attention. A bill was 
passed, providing for the appointment of three Commission- 
ers, to go at once into the infected district, and arrest the dis- 
ease by any means their discretion would justify. Perceiving 
its malignant nature, and the readiness with which it was 
communicated, they attempted its extirpation by the slaughter 
of all suspected cattle. But at that date in its progress (April, 
I860,) the cattle were beginning to leave the yards and stables, 
where the separation of the sound from the infected would 
have been comparatively easy, and seek the pasturages and 
mingle with others. It may also be well conceived that, with 
release from stables and cattle pens, the disease became of a 
milder and less striking character, and that cases, unsafe to be 
saved, might at the same time be carrying about and distribu- 
ting a fatal disease, which was kept latent in themselves by 
the favoring influence of the season. It will thus be seen that 
circumstances, in themselves apparently favorable to the fur- 
ther spread of the disease, were embarrassing to the Commis- 
sioners, who felt the conflict between reluctance at the pos- 
sibly needless destruction of property, and the danger of 
tampering with an evil that might, in a less favorable season, 
break out with renewed violence. They might well ask them- 
selves the question, if a calf, detained a few days at Leonard 
Stoddard’s, should have exterminated his herd, or if a yoke of 
cattle a single night at Needham’s should have caused the 
death in rapid succession of eight or ten of his, wdiat conse- 
quences will not come from the twenty-two yoke of cattle, infec- 
ted during the moving at Oakham, and now scattered in every 
direction ? The disease was then known to exist in North 
Brookfield, Brookfield, West Brookfield, Spenser, Sturbridge, 
New Braintree, Oakham, LIubbardstown, and strongly suspec- 
ted to exist in Pelham, Warren, Hardwick, Barre, Pepperell 
and Malden,—how much further it had extended could only 
be matter of conjecture. 
With powers granted them only to destroy and make com- 
pensation for, the Commissioners at once ordered the slaughter 14 
of 842, and had designated somewdiat over a thousand others, 
not deemed safe to be kept. 
But, finding the physical capacities of three individuals in- 
competent to the following up of a disease likely to appear in 
many different localities at once, and the appropriation made 
by the State already having been exhausted, the Commission- 
ers were compelled to petition the Governor to convene an 
extra session of the Legislature, at which the information was 
gathered now before the public. At this session the number 
of the Commissioners was increased as well as their powers, 
and extraordinary powers wrere given to cities and towns to 
destroy, isolate, and interdict the passage of cattle from dis- 
tricts at all suspected of infection. An appropriation of $100,- 
000, was also placed at the discretion of the Commissioners, to 
be used in extinguishing the disease wherever found to exist. 
This synopsis of the history of the disease in Massachu- 
setts, brings us into the month of June, 1860. And here, in 
passing, it may be justly due to the Executive of Massachu- 
setts, and especially to the intelligent Commissioners originally 
appointed to meet these extraordinary emergencies, to say, 
that it is not improbable that the energetic measures that have 
been adopted may lead, from their very success, to an under- 
rating of the danger that has impended; much as the physi- 
cian, who promptly arrests a mortal disease in its incipiency, 
often gets less applause than he whose apathy allows it to pro- 
gress far towards a fatal termination before his remedies are 
effective. 
At this present time of writing, partly in consequence of the 
decisive measures briefly alluded to above, and partly from the 
favoring influences of the season, the searcher for striking 
specimens of this disease, among the healthy hill-pastures of 
Massachusetts, would find few to reward his search. Isolated 
and “suspected” cattle, with some cough, irregular breathing, 
and loss of condition, would be all that would represent a dis- 
ease that has caused such wide-spread consternation. Let us 
hope we shall hear no more from it; yet who can tell what 
amount of latent disease may become manifest wdien the free 
air of the pasturages.shall again be exchanged for long nights 15 
and wintry days in the barns, or in the unhealthy contact of 
numbers in the barn-yards ? It may be a harmless pastime for 
those who have culled the flying rumors in the newspapers, to 
sneer at the farmers of Worcester county as “alarmists,” and 
possibly, to point to the total disappearance of the disease, 
from this time forth, to show that “ the fools are not all dead 
yet.” But we must concede that if they have been alarmists, 
they have been so at their own expense entirely; and,—it may 
yet appear—to our advantage. Feelings of regard for distant 
interests certainly prompted Governor Banks’injunction—“In 
the first instance, I think the Legislature should regulate or 
prohibit, so far as it can be wisely and properly done, the ex- 
portation of cattle in wdiich the seeds of disease may possibly 
exist, from this State into other neighboring States.”—Message 
to the Legislature, May 3Oth, 1860. 
Fortunately this flying pestilence alighted on the spot in the 
Union best prepared to stamp it under foot and bury it out of 
sight. I leave it to imagination to suggest the consequences, 
if this disease, instead of being set down among the small and 
enclosed farms in Massachusetts, had broke out among the vast 
and ever moving herds that cloud the broad prairies of our 
Strawns and Dunlaps, our Browns and Alexanders ! 
But it is now time to pay some attention to the important 
subject of what the disease consists in. 
I have applied the term “unfortunate ” to the name Pleuro- 
Pneumonia, as designating the disease in question; partly, 
because it must chiefly be in the mouths of those who have no 
great affection for Latin derivatives, and may supply a ridicu- 
lous word to those who would hardly dare to ridicule a grave 
subject; and chiefly, because it does not, as I conceive, cover 
sufficiently the true elements of the disease. Those who 
throw a doubt over the contagious nature of the disease—and 
some, of the highest medical ability in Massachusetts, have 
done so—base their doubts on analogies in diseases of the hu- 
man subject. “We find,” say they, “the same disease in our 
professional practice, and it is never, under any circumstances, 
contagious; why should cattle be exception to all the lawTs that 
govern the communication of disease?” And the question is 16 
a difficult one to answer. But when we come to regard the 
disease a general one, with a lung affection as simply its com' 
mon attendant, we find no difficulty in conceding its conta- 
giousness any more than we have in granting contagious prop- 
erties to certain forms of fever, or even small-pox. It appears 
in various parts of the testimony, that cattle were sometimes 
killed having many symptoms of the disease about them, in 
whom on examination, little or no lung disease was found. I 
saw two cows killed in blew Braintree, about the 12th of June, 
evidently seriously affected, and with similar symptoms to oth- 
ers, in which no lung disease was discoverable whatever. But 
in both cases the heart was entirely flaccid, and with hardly 
any more firmness of texture than a sponge filled with water. 
Dr. Thayer, an eminent veterinary surgeon, who has fol- 
lowed up the disease by the closest observation from the be- 
ginning, and who conducted the examination of the above 
named animals, states that the heart, in all cases has been 
found showing the same feature. I also observed in the cattle 
alluded to, a singular want of control over the muscles of the 
whole system, in their attempts at locomotion, as if the wffiole 
nervo-muscular system of the animal was under the same kind 
of prostration that marks what physicians term the “ prodro- 
mic stage ” of fevers, when the brain and nervous centres are 
feeling the effects of the morbific cause, be it contagion or 
otherwise. 
My belief in regard to the essential nature cf the disease 
may be summed up as follows: 
1. That it is a general fever, of peculiarly subacute nature 
(asthenic) with a usual tendency to localization in the lungs, by 
the same law of disease under which other general fevers lo- 
calize themselves as the disease progresses. 
2. That it is propagated—according to the best present light 
we have—by a contagion as distinct as that of small-pox, mea- 
sles, or scarlet fever ; with its regular laws of propagation and 
incubation, and that it would have its own self-limit, like the 
above diseases, but for its pulmonic complications. 
3. That disease of the lungs, although so commonly found 
as to constitute the rule, is not necessarily present, hut that 17 
cases may occur of a fatal character before the stage of the 
disease is reached in which the lungs begin to suffer, as many 
cases of scarlatina or small-pox are, under the same circum- 
stances. 
The symptoms of the disease called Pleuro-Pneumonia, are 
as follows: 
If the animal is at pasture it will be found getting apart 
from the rest of the herd ; there will be a disinclination on 
the part of the animal to stand on its feet, or if compelled to 
be on its feet, stands in a leaning attitude, with an arched 
back and stiffened appearance. When urged to move, it will 
do so for short distances only, and walks with a staggering 
gait. During the middle of the day the animal appears in 
better condition, eats more freely, and moves about with great- 
er ease. At this period the pulse is oppressed, and with less 
than its usual frequency. The appetite is commonly, but not 
invariably, poor; rumination is suspended; the bowels be- 
come costive, and, during the early days of the disease, the 
surface appears cold; the skin shrinks and becomes tight over 
the ribs, and if pressure is made on the spine the animal flinch- 
es, as if in pain. In a more advanced stage of the disease, 
the pulse increases in frequency and volume, the heat of the 
body is irregularly distributed, the breathing becomes labored, 
and, in milch cows, the secretion of milk is diminished or sus- 
pended. At a stage yet more advanced the cough makes its 
appearance, the animal drools at the mouth, protrudes its head 
forward, as if to draw its breath easier, the eye loses its lus- 
tre, and exudes from the lids a viscous matter, wdiich quickly 
dries into a crust. If, at this time, the ear is applied to the 
sides of the chest, there will usually be found, on one side or 
the other, an absence of the soft breezy murmur that healthy 
respiration gives to the ear. There will sometimes be heard a 
hard blowing sound, occasionally" an unusual rattle, and some- 
times no sound whatever. These several sounds indicate that 
either the air passages are narrowed by disease, or that the air 
gurgles through deposits of corrupted matter, or else the lung 
has solidified and of course become wholly useless. In a case 18 
thus far advanced, there is probably no remedy, and death is 
the only result. 
When an animal has died, with any of the symptoms men- 
tioned as abounding in the last stages of the disease, some one 
or other, and may be nearly all, of the following appearances 
will be found on dissection: 
In many, and perhaps a majority of cases, there will be 
found adhesions of the pleura, or covering of the lungs to the 
sides of the chest. Sometimes these are extensive, and again 
very partial and slight. They are the result of inflammation 
of the pleura, and are so general as to have given the disease 
a part of its name. 
A second appearance is, the presence of large quantities of 
serum, or yellow watery fluid, in the cavities of the chest. 
This is sometimes enormous in quantity, although it does not 
necessarily betoken a violent or fatal case. 
A third appearance is, an infiltration of matter, solid in ap- 
pearance after death, into the substance of the lungs, giving 
them a marbled appearance, and rendering them, for the time 
being, impervious to air. This is simply the deposit of fluid 
into the cellular texture of the lungs, or that structure that 
separates the air vessels from each other. In an animal of 
good constitution, it is not of itself a grave symptom, as it may 
be, and doubtless frequently is, readily absorbed, and the ani- 
mal restored to health. I have a specimen from lungs that 
were totally made useless, from their entire infiltration, and, 
of course, the animal died from suffocation, if from nothing 
else. 
Hepatization, or the solidification of the lungs into a matter 
resembling liver, is a common appearance in fatal cases, and 
is perhaps never recovered from. 
Another condition is, the existence, in the substance of the 
lungs, of cysts, or cavities having no outlet, and containing a 
solid substance, hardened in some instances into the consisten- 
cy of old cheese. Sometimes this interior substance tills the 
whole cyst, and at others it floats in a mass of pus or corrupted 
matter. This extremely common and interesting condition, 
marking the disease as distinct from any thing found in the 19 
human species, would lead one to suppose that the effect of the 
poison wras to kill outright a portion of the lung, and that the 
encysting process was an effort of nature to isolate the dead 
portion from the healthy lung till the absorbent vessels could 
carry it out of the system. A specimen from the lung of one 
of L. Stoddard’s oxen, in my possession, finely illustrates this 
form of disease. 
There are other appearances found in the lungs of cattle 
that have died, such as, deposits of pure pus, indurations of 
the lungs, etc., but the above, and especially the few last ap- 
pearances, are sufficient to establish a case as being pleuro- 
pneumonia. The various appearances sometimes run into each 
other—few of them ever existing quite alone. 
Perhaps the most important question that your Commission- 
er could investigate in the whole range of the subject, is the 
manner by which this disease is propagated or communicated. 
Is it a contagious disease ; or, is it an epidemic, propagated 
independently ? A word or two of definition here becomes 
necessary. A purely contagious disease is one that appears in 
a healthy subject after being in proximity with one affected 
with the same disease. The contact between the healthy and 
diseased may not have been immediate. Disease following on 
eating the grass where a sick animal has lain, or being placed 
in an unventilated room, vacated by a sick animal, would be 
examples of contagion. An epidemic disease, according to its 
commonly received meaning—although the term has many 
loose applications—is where many individuals are affected from 
one common cause, but each independently of others. 
Upon this point, in the disease under question, as on many 
others, doctors disagree. In the investigation before the Mas- 
sachusetts Legislature, I found on the side of its non-conta- 
giousness, the highly scientilic men who had seen little of the 
disease, but who reasoned from the analogies governing dis- 
ease in general. On the side of its contagiousness were the 
community in the neighborhood of the disease, and I may 
add, most of the physicians who had gone into the district to 
examine the disease—many of them with preconceptions 
against the fact of its contagion. 20 
Says Dr. Martin, of Worcester: “ I went to Brookfield and 
was there three days, testing the nature and character of the 
disease. I agreed, at that time, with the rest of the medical 
profession, in thinking that it ivas not contagious. I went 
there with the expectation of being able to prove that the dis- 
ease wras not contagious; but in investigating the cases, I was 
convinced of the contagious character of the disease beyond a 
doubt. Every case I saw there I was able to trace back to 
Mr. Chenery’s herd.” 
Dr. Saunders, a veterinary surgeon, of twenty years expe- 
rience says, in his testimony in relation to his first visits in the 
infected district: “ I did not think at that time that it was 
contagious. I considered it a disease more of location than 
anything else. I thought it wras caused by the cattle being 
kept in a close place, breathing an impure air—a large num- 
ber of cattle in a small place. But since that I have come to 
the conclusion that it must be a contagious disease.” 
Dr. Charles M. Wood, ivho had experience in the disease 
from its commencement to the present, and who had first seen 
it at its outbreak in Mr. Chenery’s herd at Belmont, examined : 
Question. “ Have you arrived at the conclusion that the 
disease is contagious ?” 
Answer. “I have. I think it is not epidemic.” 
Q. “ Do you know of any disease in neat cattle that you 
regard as contagious ?” 
A. “No Sir; I know no contagious disease in cattle, ex- 
cept the one just alluded to.” 
Q. “ And if this is contagious is it purely exceptional ?” 
A. “Yes, Sir; I should think so.” 
William S. Lincoln, Esq., a prominent citizen and agricul- 
turist, and President of the Worcester County Agricultural 
Society, whose attention from the first had been constant, un- 
der examination, says: 
Question. “ Do you believe there would be any opposition 
in Worcester county if the Commission should be empowered 
to encircle the county, and prevent all egress or ingress of cat- 
tle ? Do you believe the people would heartily coincide?” 
Answer. “ I have no doubt of it. In some towns the in- 21 
habitants have taken that responsibility, without authority of 
law, and the vote of the town is uniformly respected.” 
Q. “ Do you think that any claims for damages would be 
presented ?” 
A. “ I can only speak for myself. I should not. * * * 
* * I believe it to be contagious, and therefore cannot 
answer what I should do if I held a different opinion.” 
Mr. Chenery, who may be considered the innocent cause of 
the importation of the disease, and who, on that account, would 
gladly have seen it proved non-contagious, says: 
“ We thought it was caused by a want of ventilation in the 
barn, up to the time of the North Brookfield excitement. 
Since that time we have had no doubt that it was contagious.” 
Question. “Whose theory was it that the disease was ow- 
ing to bad ventilation ; the surgeons’ or your own ?” 
Answer. “ I think it w'as first suggested by Dr. Saunders.” 
Q. “ What did you think about it ?” 
A. “ I agreed with him at one time that it was so. I have 
altered my mind. I have no question now that it is conta- 
gious.” 
Charles L. Flint, Esq., Secretary of the Massachusetts State 
Board of Agriculture, and author of the well-known treatise 
on “ Milch Cows and Dairy Farming,” in an Appendix to a 
late edition of that work, says : “ At the time the first edition 
of this wmrk appeared, no instances of this terrible scourge 
had, to my knowledge, appeared in this country. During the 
year 1859, however, several cases occurred in Massachusetts 
and A ew Jersey, which, from their symptoms both before and 
after death, can leave little or no doubt of their being genuine 
pleuro-pneumonia, while, at the same time, they add weight 
to the already conclusive testimony that the disease is conta- 
gious or infectious in its character.” * * * “The outbreak 
of this disease can be traced invariably to the introduction of 
cattle from abroad, and its spread and extension can only be 
prevented by the immediate and complete isolation of the in- 
fected animals, or the destruction of all animals in which pre- 
monitory symptoms appeared, and those which have been ex- 
posed to infection.” 
I add only one authority on the subject of its contagious- ness, M. Collot, author of a recent and reliable French work 
on the dairy cow, who, in speaking of this disease holds the 
following language: “This malady is the greatest scourge 
which could fall upon the farmer. It is hereditary and conta- 
gious, and hence it will rarely disappear, or rather never dis- 
appear from a country which it has once invaded. To my 
mind, the terrible typhus is less to be dreaded than pleuro- 
pneumonia, because, if it strikes severely, it may disappear, 
and is not persistent; the evil is only temporary; while with 
pleuro-pneumonia, it is lasting, contagious, and endemic or 
latent, and ready to break out on any exciting cause. It is 
then the most terrible of maladies which could threaten our 
most valuable herds of cattle.” 
Drs. Bigelow and Jackson, of Boston, physicians of emi- 
nence, express doubts of its contagiousness. It does not ap- 
pear that either had ever seen an animal sick with the disease. 
Yet their scientific eminence, and the generally accurate rea- 
soning they adopt, entitle their views to attention. “ A dis- 
ease,” say they, “confined to the lungs, is never contagious; 
what is there in this that should make it the exception ?” 
To my mind, the difficulty is bridged by a further examina- 
tion of the essential nature of the disease. Upon a conception 
of its true character as a febrile disease—a fever of low grade, 
with a lung disease as its eventual localization—the difficulty 
vanishes at once. We then can acknowledge that the breath 
of the animal, the exhalations from its body, its urinary or in- 
testinal discharges, or any of its secretions whatever, may com- 
municate the disease, and none of the analogies of science are in 
any manner disturbed. This subject of contagion may have 
been dwelt on at too much length in the foregoing remarks ; 
but if the disease continues to attract attention among our own 
cattle interests, this question will imperatively demand solution. 
The circumstances in Massachusetts have not been favorable 
either to solving the question of its contagiousness or its cura- 
bility. The Commissioners appointed to arrest the disease, 
felt authorized to do nothing, save to extirpate it as rapidly as 
possible; and, accordingly, all animals at all diseased, were 
killed at once, with but few attempts at cure, and no delays for 
experiment. Yet, we fortunately have the results of experi- 23 
ment elsewhere, which will serve our purpose. It appears, 
that in 1854, a scientific commission was instituted by the 
French Minister of Commerce, Agriculture and Public Works, 
for the investigation of the mooted points in this case. The 
questions to be solved by experiment were the following: (The 
W’ord translated “ cohabitation ” in the questions and replies, 
means simply the dwelling together.) 
1. “Is epizootic pleuro-pneumonia susceptible of being 
transmitted by cohabitation, from sick to sound animals? 
2. “ In the cases where contagion is found operative in 
this manner, do all the animals of the kind, living in the same 
habit of contagion, contract the disease, or are there some who 
resist its influence; and what proportion of the animals fall 
sick, and what remain unaffected ? 
3. “ Among those which contract the disease, how many 
recover their health, and in what condition ? How many sink 
from the disease ? 
4. “ Are there any animals of the bovine species who prove 
decidedly opposed to the contagion of pleuro-pneumonia? 
5. “Are animals of this species preserved for the future 
from being attainted with this disease when, after a first co- 
habitation, they have presented no more than symptoms of 
slight indisposition, and that consisting principally in a cough 
more or less persistent ? 
6. “ Are those animals which have contracted it for the first 
time, more susceptible of taking the disease again?” 
After a thorough course of experiment, made by associating 
sound animals with the diseased, the Commissioners reported 
in the shape of the following conclusions: 
1. “ That the disease is susceptible of transmitting itself 
through cohabitation, from sick animals to those in health, of 
the same species. 
2. “ That all animals exposed to contagion, through cohabi- 
tation, do not contract the disease; there being some among 
them who thoroughly resist the contagious influence, and oth- 
ers who do but experience, under such influence, a slight in- 
disposition, and that of short duration. 
3. “Among the animals who contracted the disease, some 24 
recovered, and retained, wuth their recovery, every external 
appearance of health, while others succumbed. 
4. “ Such animals as presented but slight symptoms of in- 
disposition after a first cohabitation, appeared preserved by this 
trial for the future against other attacks. 
5. “Animals once attacked, appeared ever after, exempt 
from the influence of the contagion.” 
With regard to the disease, as now existing in Massachu- 
setts, I consider the fact that it is contagious, most fortunate 
as bearing on the probability of its speedy extinction. If it 
is communicated by contagion, and in that manner only, there 
is certainly science, energy, and public spirit enough in Mas- 
sachusetts to hold it in check. Even if it creeps from herd to 
herd, and from town to town, for a wide distance from its pres- 
ent location, it will be pursued by such exterminating forces 
that its suppression will be only matter of time. The Connec- 
ticut river and the Hudson, each throws itself, as an effective 
cordon sanitaire, between danger and ourselves, that can only 
be passed by negligence or culpability. But if all the eviden- 
ces on which I have relied, in establishing its contagiousness, 
should prove fallacious ; if, like the yellow fever, the cholera, 
or the influenza, it is purely epidemic, we must dismiss the 
idea that it landed in Boston on the 23d of May, 1859, and 
confess that it was spontaneously generated during the past 
twelve-month in about forty farms in central Massachusetts; 
we must also confess that the disease lately reported as exist- 
ing in Hew Jersey, on Long Island, and in the Canadas, is 
the same disease; and that we are about to be invaded by a 
general scourge, in comparison with which, financial reverses, 
short crops, and dull markets are themes of absolute joy! But 
this last view I cannot accept. I believe it was imported— 
that it spread simply because it was not at first recognized as 
new or fatal, and I trust the strong arm of a vigilant Commis- 
sion has already said to it, “thus tar and no further.” 
It may be naturally expected that some observations should 
be made on the treatment of this disease. But, for reasons 
before stated, its existence in Massachusetts has added little to 
our stock of facts in regard to its successful management. Yet 
general experience will afford some valuable suggestions. Although cattle in the best condition were among its victims, 
all testimony has gone to show that those who best withstood 
contagious influences were those in good constitutional condi- 
tion , and that Ihe presence of ill-conditioned cattle in a herd 
was a positive element of danger. One animal in Chenery's 
herd is particularly noted, as seeming to resist any amount of 
exposure, and his immunity from disease is, in a great meas- 
ure, attributed to his splendid physical condition. 
It is strikingly apparent, that while cattle were being 
housed, the disease raged with especial virulence, and that its 
abatement timed with the turning out of the cattle in the 
Spring; and so much stress is laid on bad ventilation as a 
cause, that some, who afterwards acknowledged it contagious, 
at first attributed it to the close apartments in which the cattle 
were confined. Well ventilated and dry apartments, and a 
good stock of well cured fodder are, to say the least, excellent 
prophylactics. 
With regard to the treatment of the disease, when it has 
once made its appearance, it may be summed in brief space. 
The isolation of the diseased from the sound should he instant 
and complete. Ho fact is more universally conceded among 
all scientific men than that the intensity of any contagious 
emanation is in direct ratio to the multiplication of numbers 
from which it proceeds; or, to reduce the idea to illustration, 
if a herd of cattle should be invaded, and the infected re- 
moved at once, the prospect for saving two-thirds is better than 
the prospect of saving one-third would be if allowed to asso- 
ciate together without restriction. If kept together, the con- 
tagious matter becomes intensified, and is rendered so strong 
as to break over the constitutional power of resistence even 
in the most robust animals. 
Should the disease ever invade the cattle herds oi Illinois, 
(which Heaven avert!) every considerable farm, or every 
neighborhood should have its isolating enclosure, in some un- 
frequented situation, to which diseased animals should be re- 
moved on the very first symptoms of disease. Even in those 
thus diseased and isolated, I am satisfied, from all the testi- 
mony, that the mortality could be so materially reduced as to convert, what has been in some other countries a wasting 
scourge, into an ordinary disease, submissive to easy remedy. 
We can imagine, among the panic-stricken natives of South 
Africa, a loss of 90 per cent, of cattle, and attribute such a 
mortality to ignorance and terror; and can also conceive an 
equal mortality among the bloated animals whose depraved 
function it is to stand in stalls all day, converting brewer’s 
slop into drink for Londoners. The figures given from such 
instances should be shorn by many of their terrors before 
being applied to our different circumstances. 
The principles of medical treatment that have been adopted 
are closely similar to those used in the treatment of wdiat is 
supposed a kindred disease—the pneumonia of the human 
subject. Bleeding, mild cathartics, and counter-irritation, by 
means of large mustard seed applications to the chest, are 
most specially alluded to adopted in such cases as have been 
subjected to any treatment. 
Mr. Chenery, with whose cattle the disease is believed to 
have been introduced, endeavored to obtain from Holland 
some suggestions respecting the mode of treatment there adop- 
ted, with, however, no very satisfactory results. After descri- 
bing the process of inoculation, his correspondent says in re- 
gard to its value as a preventive: “ The benefits resulting 
from this discovery are such that where the peasants formerly 
lost from fifty to sixty per cent, of their cattle, they now hard- 
ly lose one per cent.” 
Collot, the French author previously alluded to, gives the 
following course of treatment: “Bleed slightly in the neck, 
rub the whole body for half an hour with whisks of straw, and 
then cover the animal and leave it alone. Three or four hours 
after bleeding he would give an emetic in warm water, foliowr 
ed by eight similar doses, two hours apart; during the inter- 
val of the two hours he "would give the animal freely of Glau- 
ber’s salts in liberal quantities of barley water. He would also 
have a second bleeding follow,eight or ten hours after the first.” 
It must be confessed that the above treatment is something 
of the “ heroic” sort, especially as he afterwards prescribes the 
following: .. . “ Take Sulphate of Potassa, 1 oz.; Sulphate of Zinc, 1 oz.; 
Spanish Powders, 1 oz.; Oil of Turpentine, 1 oz.; Camphor, 
oz. Eeduce the whole to a powder and dissolve in one 
quart of vinegar; the whole to kept in a bottle and shaken 
frequently. Raise the head of the animal, and turn a spoon- 
ful down the passages of the nose. The animal will sneeze 
powerfully, and throw out the thick mucus which obstructs the 
air passages. Repeat this practice for several days. If the 
disease resists this treatment, and the animal refuses to eat or 
ruminate; or, if, after having eaten, the belly is swollen, the 
animal froths at the mouth, lows frequently, and is unable to 
lie down, it is betterto killitat once, and not, while losing time, 
add to the danger of increasing the contagion.” 
Collot also adds: “ Pleuro-Pneuinonia has not as yet at- 
tacked any but neat cattle; it has not extended to horses, 
among which the contagion is not to be apprehended.” 
During the prevalence of this disease in Massachusetts, a 
variety of secret prescriptions have been tendered the Com- 
missioners, with strong claims to merit on the part of those 
offering them. But they have been entitled to little atten- 
tion—being, for the most part, attempts to foist on public at- 
tention through the excitement of the subject, some valueless 
nostrum. I apprehend that rational treatment in this disease 
will best resolve itself into this:—the separation of the sick 
animal from the well, and its confinement in some dry and 
well ventilated shed, where it will be secured from the effect 
of injurious draughts of air, and have free opportunity to stand or 
lie down at will. There, a well regulated diet, consisting 
chiefly of bland and moderately nourishing liquid food, will 
best enable Mature—the safest physician and nurse in all 
doubtful cases—to do its work in overcoming the disease. 
It is possible that further experience will afford us some 
course of remedy that may prove effectual. With our pres- 
ent light, we have only the guidance of the ordinary prin- 
ciples of common sense. 
It only remains in the completion of these observations, to 
advert to the necessary measures to guard this commonwealth 
against the invasion of this calamity. The system of police 28 
restriction laid down in the proclamation under which this 
commission appears, is so comprehensive that its enforcement 
on the part of a vigil ent community, is all that is at present 
practicable, or perhaps necessary. Yet it is almost incredible 
how completely a petty individual selfishness will over-ride 
the broadest public interests. I had the best of testimony at 
the West Brookfield railroad station, that, on the day before my 
arrival, a cow had been shipped from the next station east, for 
Wisconsin—passing in its transit, of course, through our own 
State. It is by some such culpability that our interests will be 
—if at all—sacrificed. 
In the testimony of Mr. Lindley—heretofore alluded to— 
the following interesting statement is made of the value of re- 
strictive measures. He says: 
“ It was kept off in the region in which I lived, in this way: 
The chief with whom I have lived occupies a considerable ex- 
tent of territory, and he is fortunately fortified on one side by 
a range of mountains, and on the other by a precipice some 
hundred feet in height. He had assembled his tribe for anoth- 
er purpose, and wanting my advice in reference to some polit- 
ical difficulties, he sent a messenger to tell me of his trouble* 
I went to him, and after that matter was settled, I took occa- 
sion to tell him what the disease had done and would do, and 
I said to him, ‘there is just one thing to do, and that is, to 
keep your cattle where they are and not allow any to go out 
or come in.’ Well, the people there love their cattle, as they 
say, better than they love their lives. They took the alarm, 
and every effort that was made, on the part of any one, to 
bring cattle into the country, was immediately and stoutly re- 
sisted. The intruder was met with spear and shield, and 
threatened with death and destruction to himself and cattle if 
he came a step farther, and so was made to go back. Only 
half a mile off, within sight of these cattle, dead animals were 
lying nnburied that had been exposed to this contagion. The 
disease was brought there by the oxen of an individual who 
had been in the interior, and when he came home his oxen 
died. They communicated the disease to all the cattle in that 
neighborhood, and I never saw more complete destruction. 29 
There was not a single head left in all those kraals. Those 
cattle caine up to within half a mile of our boundary, and you 
could look down and see herds of them lying dead. That 
was three years ago, and yet, when I came away, the disease 
had not got one inch over that line.” 
Notwithstanding the necessity for all proper restrictive 
measures, it is still to be hoped that the proposal to exclude 
cattle from our ensuing State and County Fairs will meet with 
no favor. The danger is yet a remote one, and not likely to 
be increased by such gatherings; at least not to a degree to 
warrant us in robbing them of their chief element of interest. 
In conclusion I would say, that the foregoing observations 
are believed to contain all the important information elicited 
on this subject. Should the disease ever reach us, however 
remote in time, and however altered in circumstances from 
any thing herein foreshadowed, the results of this investiga- 
tion will have their value. But if all is but the sound of a dan- 
ger that passes afar, leaving us untouched, they may still have 
a value in pointing us with gratitude to that Providence which 
spares this great element in the future comfort and wealth of 
our advancing State. 
I am jour Excellency’s 
Yerj obedient servant. 
Andrew McFarland. 
Illinois State Hospital for the Insane, 
Jacktonville, July 1, 1860.