PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN AMERICA.

Waikato Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1220, 24 April 1880, Page 2

PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN AMERICA.

The epizootic form of pleuro has broken out badly in the Eastern States of America, and the different State Governments are about to take very active and stringent measures for its suppression. From the Neio York Weekly Times we learn that up to January 16th, the sum of 16,000 dollars had been expended by (General Patrick, Cattle Commissioner of the State of New York, to that end. The Commissioner, in his report, traces the disease to the extreme upper part of the city of New York and the districts of Long Island, City Williamsburg, and Newton. It had also been found in Brooklyn. Cases were occasionally found by the inspectors at the stockyards and slaughterhouses, where animals were brought to be slaughtered for beef, and in tracing them back to their owners it was very generally escertained that they had been smugglad from districts known to be inf eoted or from stables already in quarantine. The Commissioner goes on to say : — "There arc many unprincipled cowdealers of New York and Brooklyn .who engage in this nefarious traffio whenever an opportunity is presented, and who thus far have escaped the punishment which they richly deserve. If the State of New York is ever to rid itself of contagious pleuro-pneumonia it must be made the imperative duty of magistrates to inflict the severest penalties for the violation of the statutes for such cases provided. The question has assumed a degree of importance which seems to demand Congressional as much as State action. Ihe States of the far West, as well as nearer States, are earnest in their demand for such legislation by Congress as 6hall prevent the spread northward and westward of this disease." The disease has existed for some months in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the district of Columbia, and it was expected to make its appearance in the neighboring States, despite the measures taken for its j suppression. It is the opinion of General Patrick that these States should be brought within the jurisdiction of some power capableof carryinginfcoeffecta uniform and stringent system of operations in stamping the disease out promptly, and enforcing a judicious quarantine upon all cattle from foreign ports where the disease is known to exist. The Times in conclusion very justly argues that the expense of stamping out the disease should be borne by the Union, and not by the individual States which are infected, because their pecuniary interest in the matter is small compared with the vast interests at stake in the great cattle rearing and feeding States of the West. That the Government should pay for the eradication of the disease is also the opinion of General Patrick.