The cattle plague, which is creating so much anxiety throughout the
Eastern States, is a contagious fever, affecting cows chiefly,
characterized by extensive exudations into the respiratory organs, and
attended by a low typhus inflammation of the lungs, pluræ, and
bronchia. It has prevailed in Europe for ages, at times developing
into wide-spread scourges, causing incalculable loss. It was imported
into England in 1839, and again three years later; and it was
estimated that within twenty-five years thereafter the losses by
deaths alone in England had amounted to $450,000,000. In 1858 the
disease was carried to Australia by an English cow, and, spreading to
the cattle ranges, almost depopulated them.
In 1843 an infected Dutch cow brought the disease to Brooklyn, where
it has since lingered, slowly spreading among the cattle in Kings and
Queens counties. In 1847 several head of infected English cattle were
imported into New Jersey, and, spreading among a herd of valuable
cattle, made it necessary for them all to be slaughtered, the only
certain method of stamping out the disease. In 1859 four infected cows
were imported into Massachusetts from Holland; the plague spread
rapidly, and was stamped out only by persistent effort, the State
paying for over 1,000 slaughtered cattle. Since 1867 the disease has
not been known there. Meantime the pest had invaded Eastern
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, where it has since prevailed in
isolated localities. The absence of large herds of moving cattle in
these districts, except for speedy slaughter, has prevented the
disease from developing into a general plague.
The recent action of the British Council in forbidding the importation
of American live cattle is likely to prove of inestimable benefit to
this country, in forcibly calling attention to the grave risk that the
presence of the disease on Long Island and elsewhere constantly
entails. Fortunately the drift of the cattle traffic is eastward, and
as yet there has been no propagation of the poison in the great cattle
ranges of the West. Unless summarily arrested, however, the disease
will surely reach those sources of our cattle supply, and occasion
losses that can be estimated only in hundreds of millions of dollars.
The experience of all countries into which this disease has gained
access appears to prove that there is only one way of getting rid of
it--namely, the immediate killing of all infected cattle, and the
thorough disinfection of the premises in which they are found.
The disease is purely infectious, and is never found in regions where
it has not gained a foothold by importation. Palliative measures have
in every instance failed to eradicate the disease, and are only
justifiable, as in Australia, after the plague has reached dimensions
utterly beyond the reach of any process of extermination.
Professor Law, of Cornell University, one of our best informed
veterinary surgeons, most emphatically opposes every attempt to
control the disease by quarantining the sick or by the inoculation of
the healthy. "We may quarantine the sick," he says, "but we cannot
quarantine the air." To establish quarantine yards is simply to
maintain prolific manufacturers of the poison, which is given off by
the breath of the sick, and by their excretions, to such an extent
that no watchfulness can insure against its dissemination. Besides,
the expense of thorough quarantining operations would amount to more
than the value of the infected animals whose lives might be saved
thereby. Inoculation is still less to be tolerated at this stage of
the pest.
The Professor says: "Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, and England,
have been treating the victims of this plague for nearly half a
century, but the result has only been the increase of disease and
death. Our own infected States have been treating it for a third of a
century, and to-day it exists over a wider area than ever before.
Contrast this with the results in Massachusetts and Connecticut, where
the disease has been repeatedly crushed out at small expense, and
there can be no doubt as to which is the wisest course. As all the
plagues are alike in the propagation of the poison in the bodies of
the sick, I may be allowed to adduce the experience of two adjacent
counties in Scotland when invaded by the rinderpest. Aberdeen raised a
fund of £2,000, and though she suffered several successive
invasions, she speedily crushed out the poison wherever it appeared by
slaughtering the sick beasts and disinfecting the premises. The result
was that little more than half the fund was wanted to reimburse the
owners for their losses, and the splendid herds of the county were
preserved. Forfar, on the other hand, set herself to cure the plague,
with the result of a universal infection, the loss of many thousands
of cattle, and the ruin of hundreds of farmers. Finally the malady was
crushed out in the entire island by the method adopted by Aberdeen and
other well advised counties at the outset."
And again, "Cattle have been inoculated by the tens of thousands in
Belgium and Holland, and of all Europe these are the countries now
most extensively infected. France, Prussia, Italy, Austria, and
England have each practiced it on a large scale, and each remains a
home of the plague. Australia has followed the practice, and is now
and must continue an infected country. Our own infected States have
inoculated, and the disease has survived and spread in spite of it,
and even by its aid. Whatever country has definitively exterminated
the plague (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holstein, Mecklenburg,
Switzerland, Massachusetts, and Connecticut), that country has
prohibited inoculation and all other methods that prevail on the
principle of preserving the sick, and has relied on the slaughter of
the infected and the thorough disinfection of their surroundings. So
will it be with us. If any State adopts or allows any of these
temporizing measures, that State will only repeat the experience of
the past alike in the Old World and the New, will perpetuate the
disease in the country, will entail great losses on its citizens, will
keep up the need for constant watchfulness and great expense by the
adjoining States for their own protection, and will indefinitely
postpone the resumption of the foreign live stock trade, which, a few
months ago, promised to be one of the most valuable branches of our
international commerce."
We are persuaded that the position taken by Professor Law, and other
similar-minded veterinary surgeons, is the only safe one. The disease
can be stamped out now with comparatively small loss. If trifled with,
and tolerated, it cannot but result in a great national calamity.
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