The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-14

was further provided, "thar the boards
of cattle commissioners of the respective
States should officially certify to the
competency Of. the men making such tests.
There was no provision that these
men should be graduates of veterinary
medicine, bnt they were to be vouched
for as competent to make such tests and
among the regulations imposed by the
Massachusetts commissioners they pub
lish as follows:
Board of Cattle Commissioners,
% Village ST., Boston, July 1879.
10 All Persons whom 1t may oonoern
we, the Board of Cattle Commissioners
Tor the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
Dy virtue of the power and authority IN
US vested by law, and especially under
Gne provisions of chapter 491 of the AGts
u the year 1884, and chapter 1876 OF the
Aots OF the year 1895, have adopted ana
90 hereby issue the following order, tor
lne purpose of preventing the introduce
Gion OF tuberculosis and other contagious
ulseases within the limits of the Com
monWealth OF Massachusetts, and also
Tor that purpose to establish reasonable
quarantine regulations covering the i'm
portafion of cattle from without Its lin
it's
General Order No. 9.
Every application shall be accompanied
by a cert1tcate, executed in duplicate,
based on tuberoulin test, that in the
opinion OF the veterinarian signing the
same, each ouch animal Is free from tu-
| beroulOsis. Each suoh certificate shall
give description of the animal suffio-
lently accurate for easy Identification, as
we'll as brief statement of the condition
OF such animal found upon physical ex-
animation. 1t shall also state the prepa-
ration OF tubereulin used, the quantity
injected, the temperature ascertained
immediately previous to incubation, and
also the temperature at the eleventh hour
and every two hours subsequent thereto
Tor period OF at least ton hours, or I'M
TIL the reaction has been completed. The
certificate shall be signed by veterina-
r1an whose competency shall be certified
to by the Board of Cattle Commissi toner's
or the State from which said animals
are driven or shipped, or Of such other
board or authority as may have jurisdic-
ton over the matter of tho suppression of
contagious diseases among domestic ami
mails in such State or country. Forms
OF such certificate will be furnished by
this Board on application. II each
| certificate is satisfactory to this
| Board, one of said certificates will be re-
tanned by this Office and the duplicate
certificate will be returned to the owner,
| together with permit to such applicant
| to enter and deliver such animal in the
manner and at tho time and place des-
ignated inssuoh application.
Measured by any agreement or require
ment of the New England organization,
this Association has no right to set up
any such standard of competency as
they assume, or dictate to our board
whom we should or should not vouoh for
or employ, our law making ample pro-
visions for oil such emergencies. A case
In point is that Mr.. Dening, one'of the
active members of the Massachusetts
Cattle Commission. farmer by occupa-
ton has for long time been MAX
ing satisfactory and reliable tests for
breeders and owners in his State, and
out of nearly 400 inspectors appointed
under the Massachusetts law 1856 of
them are farmers and but IS are veteri-
nary surgeons. Massachusetts has, how
ever, an annual appropriation of three
hundred thousand dollars to carry on
their work, while Maine has the small
lest appropriation Of any New England
State, and five thousand dollars year is
expected to pay for all the horses an,
cattle that we condemn, and all the ex-
psnses and pay of the commissioners.
There are approximately eighteen
members of this Veterinary Association
in Maine. and our commission youched
for everyone of them. when the first
tests were ordered in this State, and since
that time we have vouohed for the COM
potency of but three men who are not
members of their association; and al
though they were thus eligible and quail
ifled to do eighteen twentieths of the
work in this State their professional dig
nity has been much disturbed by the fact
that they could not monopolize the
whole of the work without competing
with a few men who they say are
"quaoks, although both of them have
been in practice as veterinarians in this
State longer than any member of the M. !
V. NJ. Association, who now re-
solve, fthat If this important test cannot
be made by professional men that there
is no valid reason for its being made at
all, as 1t entails unwarranted expense
upon the shippers and owners of suoh
CATTLE"
AS far as tho cattle commissioners are
at present concerned and informed, the
men who are publishing these resolves
and protests are themselves the only and
real transgressors, as the complaints that
have thus far reached us of ''inoompeten-
oy, triokery and dishonesty" in the max
ing of such tests, have been directed SOLE
ly against few membe of the Associa-
ton, while not a particle of fault has
been found with either of the ''quaoks,"
excepting by the members of the M. V.
Association themselves. No one of the
present Board of Cattle Commissioners
has the honor of membership in this Vet
Urinary Association; none of us is COM
peting in the work of testing and no one
of us has ever received single penny
from any man vouohed for by us as com-
petent to do the work, and we had hoped
that after the liberal concessions made
to them at the Falmouth Hotel meeting
these professional gentlemen would
have had disoernment and average good
sense enough to know that we had only
continued TO vouoh for the men, against
whom such damaging complaints had
been made, for the reason that for the
nj ha voto