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England, and prohibiting the landing of neat cattle from England at ports of the United States until further orders.

A copy of this order, marked C, is transmitted.

This order was issued partly in consequence of a letter from the seeretary of the New York Agricultural Society, addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury, calling attention to the fact that cattle from the Jersey Islands were brought to the United States frequently and in considerable numbers, by steamers sailing from the port of Hull, touching at Southampton, where they received cattle from the Channel Islands; and especially that the steamer Lepanto was to arrive from England at New York, bringing a herd of cattle from Southampton to be sold at auction. in New York.

The department had also been informed that two herds of cattle, one being from the United States and the other from Canada, shipped from Portland by the Ontario, had been found to be diseased with pleuro-pneumonia on their arrival; and, further, that the Dominion of Canada by the order of February 6, 1879, had prohibited the importation of cattle into that dominion from the United States for a period of three months. This order, by an order of October 14, 1879, was made perpetual until dis solved and is now in force. A letter had also been received from Dr. Law, of the Brooklyn Board of Health, urging either the absolute prohibition of the importation of cattle from Europe, or of placing them in quarantine, as absolutely necessary for the protection of our country from the disease in question.

It was understood that there were companies in Philadelphia and New York, regularly engaged in importing cattle from the Channel Islands for sale at auction in those cities; and it was ascertained that by these auction sales cattle were distributed throughout all parts of the country.

On the 19th of July, 1879, the order prohibiting the importation of heat cattle from England was revoked, with the proviso

That all neat cattle from any part of Europe arriving at ports of the United States shall be kept in quarantine for not less than ninety days, under direction of the enstoms officers, and at the expense of the parties interested, except when State or municpal laws provide for a quarantine of such cattle, and in such cases collectors will permit the proper officers to quarantine them in such manner as the State or muzápal authorities require.

The department in that order reserved the right to consider special cases, and to decide whether in such cases cattle might be delivered at a period shorter than ninety days. The reasons for issuing this order are obvious enough without explanation. The reason why an order for quarantine was not issued at an earlier period is that, as above stated, the provisions of the statute before cited had been construed to allow only the free importation or the utter prohibition of the importation of cattle from abroad. Under urgent representations from several quarters the question was reconsidered, and upon consultation with leading officers of other departments, the conclusion was adopted that the Seeretary, under the provisions referred to, had, under the authority to prohibit or admit at his pleasure, the power to impose conditions upon he importation of cattle in the nature of quarantine regulations. The correctness of this construction may possibly admit of some doubt; and if Congress shall be of opinion that the Secretary has not the power to establish quarantine regulations, it is respectfully submitted that such authority should be given to him or some other department of the government, to do so.

A copy of this order, marked D, is transmitted.

On the 27th of December, 1879, this department published an order modifying the order of July 19, 1879 [Exhibit D], and requiring that in all cases a quarantine of not less than ninety days shall be enforced, including any term during which cattle shall be quarantined under State or municipal authority; and providing that cattle from Australia and New Zealand shall be regarded as embraced in the order of July 19, 1879.

It was found that under the order of July 19, which allowed State and municipal authorities to quarantine cattle according to their own regulations, a much shorter period than ninety days was often required. Under present regulations a quarantine of ninety days is required in all cases. On the 3d of November, 1879, the department issued the following order:

To Collectors and other Officers of Customs:

To aid in preventing the introduction into the United States of contagious diseases anong cattle, it is hereby ordered, that, in pursuance of the authority contained in section 2493 of the Revised Statutes, the importation of neat cattle from the Dominion of Canada is prohibited until otherwise directed.

This order will take effect on the first of December next.

A copy of this order, marked F, is transmitted.

It became necessary to issue this order, because it was found that after the publication of the order of July 19, imposing quarantine upon eattle imported directly into the United States, cattle were imported into Canadian ports and driven across the border into the United States, thus avoiding any quarantine whatever.

It may be proper to state in this connection that this department has been notified that, by an order of the privy council of Canada, issued on the 6th of December, 1879, a quarantine of foreign cattle imported into the Dominion of Canada of ninety days has been established. If it shall be found upon further inquiry that our opinion that no pleuropneumonia exists in Canada is correct, and that a quarantine at the ports of Canada is rigidly enforced, it is in contemplation by this department to rescind the order prohibiting the importation of cattle from Canada into the United States.

It is hoped that the purpose of this government to dispense with all restrictions upon the importation of cattle from Canada into the United States will be met with a corresponding purpose on the part of the Government of Canada to dispense with all restrictions upon importations of cattle from the United States into that dominion not absolutely necessary to its own protection.

This department is fully satisfied from reports under its order of Feb. ruary 1, 1879 [Exhibit B], and from other correspondence, and from careful inquiry of members of Congress and others, that contagious pleuro-pneumonia has never existed in any of our territory west of the Alleghany Mountains, and that the importation of cattle from the Western States, through Buffalo and points west of that port, into the Dominion of Canada can be attended with no danger of carrying infection into the Dominion of Canada.

It is hoped that arrangements may be made that the great line of traffic through the ports of Buffalo, Detroit, and Port Huron, over the Grand Trunk Railway through Canada, may be resumed. Extensive cattle yards are in existence at Sarnia, the western terminus of the Grand Trunk Railway, from which cattle crossing from Port Huron were shipped upon that railway for transportation to the Atlantic coast for shipment abroad. That traffic is now entirely suspended by the Canadian order of non-importation. It is of great importance to the

United States, to the Dominion of Canada, and also to Great Britain. If proper regulations can be established by Congress, or otherwise, for searity against infection at or near the ports of exportation, it is be deved that the British Government will gladly rescind the order which now requires the immediate slaughter of cattle imported from the United States into Great Britain at the ports of importation, as already sug gested.

With the removal of those restrictions a large exportation of store cattle from the United States to Great Britain might be made to the advantage of both countries.

Although many complaints were at first made of the order compelling inmediate slaughter of cattle imported from the United States into Great Britain, a careful consideration of the position of both countries, with regard to the disease in question, leads to the conclusion that the order Was made in perfect good faith to prevent importation of the disease, and not with any view to embarrass the traffic in neat cattle between the antries. The supposed importation of the pleuro-pneumonia by the Ontario, and the reports of the existence of the disease in several of the Atlantic States, furnished reasonable ground for the action of the British Government, and it is not doubted that the government will be as ready to rescind the restrictions upon the traffic as it was to impose them, whenever it is convinced that it may do so without danger of introducing the much-dreaded disease.

It is all important, not only with reference to our own protection but to our commerce with Great Britain in neat cattle, that effectual measures shall be taken by our own government to guard in general against the spread of the disease in this country, and in particular against its possible introduction into Great Britain, through the shipment of cattle from our own ports.

MEASURES TO PREVENT AND SUPPRESS THE DISEASE.

Among the measures suggested to prevent the spread of the pleuropneumonia, isolation of the infected cattle is naturally suggested. This method, however, has been, and no doubt will be, found to be entirely impracticable. The disease, as we have seen, is readily transmissible not only by contact with the diseased animals but by contact with buildings, hay, bedding, or excretions of any kind which have been in contact with diseased animals. Neat cattle are short lived, and when once infected by the disease in question, even if they recover, are of very small value either for breeding, for fattening, or for labor. Although a large percentage of the cattle diseased may apparently recover, yet, upon dissection, the lungs will be found to be seriously affected, so that it may be fairly said that cattle once infected with the disease are worthless for any purpose."

Added to this, isolation is very expensive, is attended with great risk to the neighborhood, and the infected herd must be always suspected, and therefore unsaleable. In no view can the isolation of the cattle be recommended further than for the mere purpose of ascertaining definitively whether or not the disease actually exists.

Ioculation is, as has been before stated, another method practiced in some countries to prevent the spread of the disease; but this has never been employed except in countries where the disease had broken through all restraint, and as a last resort to preserve sound cattle from the general infection which surrounds them. Besides the expense and inconvenience of the practice, it is often attended with the mutilation of the

cattle by the loss of their tails or otherwise, and sometimes by the loss of their lives. It is not to be thought of as a remedy under any conditions such as exist at the present time in this country.

The only effectual method of eradicating the disease is by prompt slaughter of all infected and exposed cattle. By this method, energetically administered, the disease has been thoroughly stamped out in several places in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and other States. To effect this, however, prompt and energetic measures are requisite. Several States have adopted such measures, and are ready to prevent, to attack, and exterminate the disease wherever it may appear within their borders. Most States, however, have adopted no such measures: and it seems absolutely necessary that some measures should be adopted by the general government to prevent the prevalence of a disease, which, as we have seen, would amount to a national calamity. It is for Congress, and not for this department, to devise the measures necessary for this purpose. It may not be improper, however, to make some general suggestions upon the subject for the consideration of Congress.

The legislature of Massachusetts has recently sent to Congress a memorial requesting prompt action for the prevention and suppression of this disease; and from all quarters a cry is heard that it is time that the general government should intervene in the matter.

The most obvious method of meeting the emergency is, perhaps, the appointment of a veterinary sanitary commission, whose duty it shall be to promptly investigate all reported cases of pleuro-pneumonia in any part of the country, to collect information with regard to the disease from all parts of the world, and to report the results of their investigation to some department of the government for publication.

It would be necessary that such commission should be composed, principally at least, of veterinary surgeons or experts in the diseases of cattle. The commission might be small, consisting of from three to seven members, with authority to employ assistants or agents, who should be responsible directly to the commission. From such a commission, even with no greater powers than have been above indicated, much good might result. Owners of suspected herds and their neighbors. would at once be informed whether the contagious disease was really present or not. If it were found to exist State and municipal authorities might be invoked for its suppession. If found not to exist, publication of that fact would be of very great value, not only to the suspected neighborhood, but to the country and world in general.

Going a step further, government might invest such commission with authority, in proper occasions, to aid municipal and State authorities in the suppression of the disease, and, by means of appropriation for the purpose, grant proper indemnity to the owners of cattle condemned to slaughter. Such proceedings would be in a close analogy with the methods adopted for the prevention and suppression of the yellow fever in the acts establishing the Board of Health.

Under the provision found in the third section of the act of June 2, 1879, entitled “An act to prevent introduction of contagious and infectious diseases into the United States," it is provided that—

The National Board of Health shall co-operate with, and, so far as it lawfully may, aid State and municipal boards of health in the execution and enforcement of the rules and regulations of such boards to prevent the introduction of infections or contagions diseases into the United States from foreign countries, and into one State from another.

It is understood that this act does not apply to diseases in animals. Under this provision large amounts of the appropriation contained in

the act have been expended in co-operation with the authorities of several cities and States infected or threatened with infection by yellow fever; and it is not doubted that, through similar agencies, appropriations by Congress might be properly and effectually used for the prevention and suppression of pleuro-pneumonia among cattle.

As suggested by the British minister, the most obvious method of dealing with the disease would be by the appointment of a commission of some kind, with full power to prevent and eradicate the disease, in any manner they think proper, in any part of the territory of the United States-such power as is exercised by the privy council of Great Britain. Without expressing any opinion whether, under the power to regulate commerce, Congress has authority to send its agents into the States and destroy, upon the judgment of a commission, herds belonging to citizens, which may be found to be dangerous to inter-State or national commerce, it is somewhat doubtful whether measures apparently so arbitrary would meet with hearty co-operation from State or municipal authorities.

The disease is not in existence in any of our Western States or Territories. Indeed, it has existed and is known in only a few States of the Union and the propriety of so energetic a movement on the part of the general government might not be appreciated in those States where the disease has not been known. Some scheme for the prevention and prompt eradication of the disease seems to be demanded, and it is for Congress to define the limits both of policy and legality in its enactment. Inspection of cattle upon railway trains on our great line of transpor tation has been suggested as a precaution against the conveyance of the disease. The objections to this proposition are based upon the fact that contagious pleuro-pneumonia is not indigenous to this country, that it has never existed in our Western States, whence cattle found upon such lines of transportation are brought, and that therefore such inspection is unnecessary.

Again, the disease has an incubation of from 9 to 60 days, during which the seeds of the disease would not be obvious to any inspector, however skilled. The interest of all shippers of cattle is clearly against the shipment of cattle infected with this disease. The delay of trains for such inspection would be expensive, and would be a great obstruction to business. Such inspection, as a general proposition, is not recomTended, while there is no practical objection to the inspection of cattle by authorized commissioners, in particular cases where the disease is reported to exist.

CONCLUSIONS.

Having thus given a brief sketch of the history and character of the disease, and a statement of existing laws, the orders of this department under them, with some suggestions as to the effect of the disease upon our commerce with other nations, and with some remarks as to appropriate legislation by Congress on the subject; it may be convenent to state in this place, in the form of propositions, the conclusions at which this department has arrived. They are as follows:

1. Pleuro-pneumonia is a contagious, infectious lung fever in neat cattle, as readily communicated among them as small-pox among mankind, not only by actual contact, but by excretions of all kinds.

2. In this country it has never developed de noro, but has always been introduced by contagion.

5. It may be prevented by inoculation; but that remedy is not to be thought of in this country under present conditions.

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