National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-01-28
ABOUT THE CATTLE PLAGUE.
A NaffOual Law Wanted TO Stamp Out q
DIsease-Our Cattle in Europe.

Yesterday The REPUBLICAN called at the Agri-
cultural Department 10 see DIR. Charles P. Lyman,
the eminent veterinarian, who watched the land
ing of American cattle in Liverpool last summer,
and whose report on the subject is now before
Congress- III connection with other important doc
uments laid before both Houses by Commissioner
lie Due.
Doctor let's know about the cattle plague ex-
tinction about which there is so much talk
MY report will tell you all about it," said the
Doctor; here is copy
is there anything you desire to call especial at
tention to in it,"
"ies; every Congressman should certainly read
the last paragraph OH page Z. While in England
was fortunate enough to see Professor Brown chief
of the veterinary division of the privy council
My report says:
az asked Professor Brown, Supposing drafts ofcat-
tie were made from our healthy Western districts
transported over lines of rail which were entirely
away from our infected districts i'll cars used for
these and no other cattle, if inspectors could guar
antee that they had not been i'll the same yard, or
mixed with any other cattle on the route or at the
port of embarkatiOn and were healthy at time
OF shipment and inspection at the port Of debarka
ton should show that cargo after cargo coming uI-
der these regulations could be landed free from
pneumonia, would the embargo be raised
in favor Of cattle so inspected from such port?
10 this Professor Brown answered that even if Eng
land were disposed to remove the restriction from
any one port under certain methods inspection as
he understood ii, the-1nited States were not. as
matters now stood, able TO prevent cattle coming
TO said port from any point that people chose to
send them. j told him that thought the matter
could undoubtedly be arranged with the State au-
thorltes ana railroad companies so as 10 be per
fectly safe. He intimated that this would be too
loose an arrangement TO give England much conf
dence. and further said that he did not know
what there was to prevent a diseased or infected
animal from being sent at any time from the in
fected eastern district directly to the parts i'll the
west from which these drafts were being
,NT lnrt Of fhn Ef,tac
as a Government, had not as yet shown
the slightest interest in the matter and that in the
absence of any national laws relating to the move
ments of animals exposed to or infected with con-
tagiouS diseases he should not advise any change
from their present methods. Here representa-
ton was made setting forth the sovereignty of
States and their powers-that a State could make
any laws upon the subject that she thought proper
providing it did not conflict with the Constitution
of the United States. In answer 10 this the opin-
ion given was that decidedly in this matter these
could not take the place of national laws; that il
would be highly impracticable for Great Britain to
recognize Independent State governments while
dealing with the United States
Then the only way to regulate the thing is to
have national law on the subject which Great
Britain Will respect?'
Precisely
Afeyou sure that any cattle infected with pleuro-
pneumonia were e3eEE landed in England from
this country?'
"No. Nor are ali the British authorities sure Of
II. Here again my report says:
"'Out of nearly eleven thousand beasts landed
and examined in Liverpool during parts OF July
and August, in no one of which could pleuro-
pneumonia be detected in the living animal the
inspector of the veterinary department of the priyy
council condemned after post-lnortem examination
of the lungs, six cases. These six cases have been
traced back, and in all except one it has been
found that the animals undoubtedly came from
the West and over lines of rail which are entirely
north of any localities that are known to be CON
taminated the fact being that part of their jour
ney eastward was generally made through por-
tions of Canada. This, of course, means that we
have this dreaded cattle scourge established
among Our Western herds: that Chicago, Buffalo
Albany, Boston. or Portland are diseased centres
else the disease is not pleuro-pneumonia at all
'1fpleuro-pneumOnia exists in the West, or there
diseased centres in and about the points named
through which the cattle pass OH their Journey
eastward, the information now in possession of the
Department of Agriculture will insure its exact To-
cation after little further time for examination.
In relation to the last phase of the matter, ell
that can Mt present be said is that the particular
lungs exhibited present i'll their fresh state and to
the naked eye all the LESSONS of the contagious dis
ease but OH very small scale, and in addition
there is another lesion that is constantly present in
these condemned lungs which has never been de-
scrbed by any authority or noticed by any of our
veterinarians to be aconstant or even known ac-
compartment of the disease in question. What
bearing this fact may have upon this part of the
question further and more minute investigation
of the subject alone can decide. Professor William
Williams, of Edinburgh. comparative pathologist
Of world wide celebrity, asserts that the lungs
amined by him previous 10 my visit did not show
the LESSONS of the disease but that the changes no
ticed were caused by bronchitis
"Since the report was written have continued
my investigation i'll this country and not the slight
est indication of pleuro-pneumOnia among cattle
can be found in the West, outside of the small
district in the East in which it was located by N.Y.
selflast year"