New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-07-21
WHOLE NUMBER 1874
Congress and the Cattle Plague.

Congress and the Cattle Plague.
The subject Of treating disease of cat.
tie is yearly growing in importance, and
an effort will be made to have Congress-
take the matter in hand. In recent
address. Prof. James Low, of Cornell
University, remarked that s.the power
OF enforcing our live stock sanitary
laws should be exercised absolutely and
instantly, when necessary, and guided
by some one thoroughly versed in the
diseases of animals. We have in this
country live stock worth nearly g., OOO.-
100000. The. possibilities of loss by
the importation or spread of an animal
plague are perfectly appalling. With
40, 600, 900 head of live stock, England
has lost in the last thirty-five years live
stock valued at 100000, 900; what
might not our experience be if we were
to allow general diffusion of the same
diseases among our 10000, 900, head of
live stock? There is no need to 90 to
England for terrible example of ami
NAL scourge. 1t is etimated that last
year we lost not less than $4,000, 900,
from one of our native animal plaques,
the hog cholera. There is a better
prospect now that Congress will give
some consideration to the question of
how to deal with animal epiLcmics. !
There are eight specific disease poisons
that are communicable from animals to
men, and no less than twenty-one
parasites, any one of which may rise to
the Importance of an epizootic. There,
are no less than fourteen contagious
and thirty-four parasites of farm ami
mails that are not communicable to man.
These last may be classified as exotic
and indigenous. Maladics that are i'm.
ported and maintain their existence by;
. continuous reproduction of seeds or
germs, and that are the true plaques,
never rise spontaneously on our soil,
and may be eradicatcd as surely as a.
nOXious weed. But maladies that de-.
velop spontaneously on American soil
can never be permanently rooted out
until we can ascertain every un-hygienici
condition in the climate, locality and
management, and obviate the condi-
tions on which the generation of such
maladies depends. There is one exotic
cattle plague now prevalent which de-,
mands more urgent means for its extir-
patton than all the others put together. !
1t is the bovine lung plague Contagious,
pleurO-pneumonia), which was Imported
into Brooklyn in l843. The plague is.
gradually extending to the West and
South. If it reached the unfenced cat
tie ranges of the West and South it
would be impossible to eradicate it, as
herd mingling with herd would spread
the infection on every side. Whenever
this disease has been introduced into
common pastures it has maintained a
permanent residence. Since cattle arc
shipped from Texas and the plains to
all parts of the Union, no State will be
safe if the infection once reaches them
As the seeds of this disease remain Ia
tent in the system for from ten days to
three and One-half months, and only be-
come manifest by their effects at the
end of this time, infected cattle may be
carried from ocean to ocean or from tho
lakes to the gulf, in apparent health,
and yet spread pesilencc. Unless tho
United States Government steps in to
control the means of extirpating this
disease and of protecting against new
lupOIIilClOuSs our nCfuS Will never Do
freed of it,
The subject, it will be readily seen,
is one of vast Importance and national
in its character, and can not be too soon
subjected to the scverest sanitary re-
straints. The investigation should be
committed to men in all regards quail
fled to master it, and the remedies when
found should be applied with such vigor
as to arrest the spread of the disease.
The danger has been too long neglected,
and the demand now is for vigorous
work.-I,aliana State Sentinel.
TIE notion has gone abroad that
childrcn's books are easy to write, and
that occasionally they "pay" well.
We can easily believe that the major
portion of the child's books that APP
pear nowadays are very easy indeed
TO write, though how they can be made
to "pay" is a mystery to us. But it
is known to the wise that TO write n
good child's book is the most difficult
literary feat achievablc, which hardly
anybody short of Shakespeare or a
Solomon should have the audacity to
attempt. But alas! audacity is tho
fashiOn.-L0ndo,a Standard.