Originally published in April 1860
“The terrible epidemic of cattle disease, by its continuous spreading, threatens to become one of the greatest scourges that has ever visited the country. The imagination is appalled at the contemplation of the thousands of herds from Maine to Texas being visited by this wasting and fatal malady. The dread of its loss among the agricultural community, and the fear of diseased meat in all our cities, may be partly conceived but cannot be fully realized. In Massachusetts three commissioners are to be appointed to investigate the subject. Authority has been given them to have slaughtered, at the expense of the state, all the cattle that are sick or that have been exposed to the contagion. It is purely a disease of the lungs, affecting the animal in no other organ.”
—Scientific American, April 1860
More gems from Scientific American’s first 175 years can be found on our anniversary archive page.
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