The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1885-06-17
I ABOUT ANIMAL PLAQUES.
THEIR INFLUENCEo ON THE WORLDS
HEALTH AND PROPERTY.
Result of Interesting Investigations
by DIR. Ds n. Salmon, of the De
partment of Agriculture.

VI
DIR. d. E. Salmon, chief of the bureau
of animal industry department of agri-
culture, Washington, delivered an inter
esting lecture recently at the Long Island
College hospital: "Animal Plaques;
with special reference to their influence
on health and property, and the means
of prevention" was the title under which
DR.. Salmon grouped some important
facts. The speaker said that from time
immemorial animal life had suffered from
plaques, some of which also attacked the
human form divine. By the teachings Of
science, most of these plaques are now
shown to be from parasites, animal or
vegetable. The accounts of these plaques
began with the earliest history OF man
kind. Virgil describes all too plainly
the dreadful pestilence of his time, which
afflicted horses and other animals,
and it is not to he concluded that
he described the instances Of
single year. That these plaques were
of frequent occurrence is shown in his
writings. Homer also tells of the
terrible plague which afflicted the Gre
clan camp at the siege of Troy, where
Apollo is described as shooting his
deadly arrows to avenge the insult to
his priest, Chryses.
One hundred years earlier, in the time
of King Leonidas, similar plague is
described, and two and half centuries
before this king is the extraordinary
plague in Egypt, where all the animals
were afflicted, and the first born of every
family were smitten.
Three thousand years ago animal
plaques originated in the simpler forms
of life, and may these not have been
evoluted in accordance with the law of
the survival of the fttest2 Smallpox
has not yet finished its development; it
must have originated at a comparatively
recent date, or it would have become
more widely distributed, and would have
been known also to the ancients. So
with scarlatina and kindred diseases.
Numbers of disease germs are scattered
in the earth, water and air. Contagious
fever germs are passed from animal to
animal, and we have them with our food
and drink.
In this country we have millions and
millions of cattle under various condi
tions, from the close, unhealthy quarters
and swill feed of the crowded towns to
the pure air and pasturage of the Rocky
mountains, but among all these millions
we have had no case of rinderpest and
we may conclude this will be our misery
for the future until the disease is brought
to our shores. Our climate, it has been
concluded, is not favorable to these par
ticula- diseases which affiict Europe, or
we would have had them. Pleuro -pneu-
monia did not exist here until imported,
and although it was believed it could not
exist beyond the Alleghenies, it does ex-
ist there. The West had been free be-
cause contagion was never brought Lere.
Some animal plaques do not originals
in any known country, and the attempts
to trace their origin have proved futile.
Some of these have had a large effect on
the health and property of the world.
Diseases which only arise from contagion
are attributed to other causes, and scien-
fists charged with the duty of
repressing them have to struggle
with wrong opinions. The writings
on these diseases of half a dozen
years ago serve to show what rapid ad-
vances science has made in this direc-
ton. The germ theory has been ridi-
culed the most of all. Varro, before the
birth of Christ, writing on malarial fever,
attributed it to little animals bred in
marshes. Not until 1876 was this theory
established.
DR.. Salmon here introduced number
of drawings from photographs, much en-
larged, showing the result of micro
scopic examinations of disease germs in
cattle, poultry and swine, and the differ
ent appearance of the same disease-such
as choleBa-had in poultry and swine.
The lecturer spoke of the danger from
animals afflicted with tuberculosis, or
consumption. Few, probably, realized the
vast number of domesticated animals
held in this country and not protected
from these diseases. There are thirteen
and a half million horses and mules, A, .
900, 900 cattle, 90, 900, 900 sheep, and As, .
900, 600 swine. The horses, sixteen
abreast, would make a line 4, 900 miles
long, and all the animals in line would
reach 10, 900 miles. To pass along the
line would take twenty days, of twelve
hours each, travelling at the rate of
twenty miles an hour. These animals,
worth $4,000. 900 1.-TWO thousand five
hundred millions) in value, and
which all the gold ever
mined here could not buy, stand
exposed to the ravages of animal plaques
swept over here from Europe. England
lost millions of cattle by these diseases,
and to estimate our possible loss we have
only to multiply by seven. Consump-
ton is becoming more prevalent among
cattle, and there is practically no inspec-
tion to prevent the milk or flesh of tu-
berculosis COWS being sold to the public
and spreading the germs of the disease.
This milk is especially dangerous TO
children.
At present this whole question of
properly treating cattle disease is in such
a muddle that it is doubtful if either
science or art will ever be able to clear
it up; but what these cannot do, urgent
necessity, born of great national ca.
lamity, will sometimes accomplish. AL
most every State has its local laws on
the subject, and they clash. The cen
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