apparent cause about October, and the disease continued into midwinter, when but three animals remained pregnant. None of these mares were worked; all were in first-class general health; and the weather being exceptionally fine they were not stabled, but allowed to run in a stalk field, where they had abundant food free from ergot; and no cause other than infection could well be suggested.

Mr. Charles Yoder, of Normal, Ill., son of the above-named gentleman, residing some 10 miles distant from him, had three pregnant mares, all grade draft, in excellent general health, and having good food and care, among which the disease appeared after association with animals from the infected herd of his father. In the country intervening between the two farms, and in the vicinity of the latter, no other outbreaks of abortion could be found, although in a rich breeding district.

The first abortion in Mr. C. Yoder's herd happened about November 10, the second on December 24, and the third and last pregnant mare aborted during the night of January 12-13. The second of these mares was brought to the experiment station on December 25, and kept in contact with Nos. 1 and 3 until December 29, when, in addition, the utero-vaginal discharges were transferred by introducing the hand into vagina of aborted mare and withdrawing as much of the lochia as possible and inserting it into vulvæ of experimental animals.

The third mare was procured within a few hours after aborting, while portions of putrid placenta remained, and a copious purulent uterine discharge existed; and on the same date Nos. 6 and 7 were exposed by the transfer of placental shreds and uterine discharge into the vagina. From this exposure was obtained the only apparently positive results of the series, in the abortion of No. 6, thirtynine days after exposure.

The exposure of Nos. 1 and 3 by cohabitation in herd of Mr. E. A. Vittum, Canton, Ill., was, so far as could be seen, of a thoroughly reliable character.

During October and November, 1889, Mr. Vittum lost through abortion six foals out of eight pregnancies, and in same herd of mares the disease reappeared in autumn of 1890, one mare aborting in November and another on night of February 6-7, 1891. With these mares, along with several remaining pregnant ones, Nos. 1 and 3 were placed. Mr. Vittum's mares were not worked, and had wintered mostly on blue grass pasture; they had not had access to cornstalks. No abortions occurred in this herd after experimental mares came in contact with them. On an adjoining farm a brother, Mr. J. T. Vittum, lost by abortion four foals out of seven pregnancies.

One of the largest outbreaks discovered during our work was that on the farm of W. P. Buswell & Son, at Neponset, Bureau County, Ill., in whose herd Nos. 8 and 9 were kept from February 4 to 14. Messrs. Buswell & Son had, in autumn of 1890, twenty-five supposedly pregnant mares, used exclusively for breeding, consisting of full blood and grade draft animals, with a few that were trotting bred. All were in good condition and had abundant food, in which a careful personal inspection failed to reveal any cause for abortion. The food and water were essentially the same as had been in use for years on the same farm without heretofore producing evil results, and essentially the same as neighboring herds were using with impunity. On December 15 it was discovered that a mare, which had previously been a reliable breeder, had aborted, and upon the dis

covery being made she was isolated. Early in January, 1891, some eight or nine mares aborted during a period of forty-eight hours. Several more scattering abortions occurred, the last known being January 30, or five days prior to placing the experimental mares in the herd, after which there were no further miscarriages, there remaining some twelve mares apparently pregnant. During the outbreak Messrs. Buswell & Son sold a pregnant mare to a neighbor, and this aborted soon after the transfer.

Another mare belonging to Messrs. Buswell & Son, but kept on another farm, was driven upon the infected premises and then returned to farm where usually kept, and after the lapse of several weeks this, too, aborted.

It will thus be seen that, notwithstanding the reliability of some of the material used, no positive results were obtained except in case of No. 6. Exposures from this animal soon after abortion failed to perpetuate the disease.

Regardless of these negative results it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that there is a true infectious abortion among mares. The outbreaks already cited present strong clinical evidence on this point, and many more outbreaks might be cited prior to the beginning of our work in which the origin of the disease was distinctly traceable to the introduction into a herd of a pregnant mare from a farm where the disease existed.

Breed, food, water, stabling, work, or other environments exert no visible effect on the origin, course, or termination of the malady. Horse breeding in central Illinois is largely devoted to heavy draft horses, but occasional mares of lighter breeds associated with herds of draft animals show no immunity, and the few herds of trottingbred mares kept in this locality are as prone to suffer as the heavy draft.

The food allowed breeding animals in central Illinois is quite uniformly of a high class and liberal in amount, and the disease occurs alike in mares on first-class blue grass, clover, or timothy pasture, on cornstalks, or still later in the season, when fed exclusively an grain and hay of the best quality and either allowed to run at large or comfortably housed.

The period of gestation seems to be without material influence. In the summer of 1889 abortion broke out in the herd of Mr. Danforth, of Washington, Ill., consisting of full-blood Clyde and high bred-trotting stock. The first notice taken of anything being wrong was the return of cestrum in mares supposedly two or three months preg nant, and the mares being at pasture the expelled foetuses escaped detection, until in some the period of gestation had considerably advanced, when the size of the foetuses led to the discovery that abortion was rife in the herd.

It appears certain, from this and other similar instances, that infectious abortion may originate at any stage of pregnancy, although in the earlier periods the expulsion of the foetus is likely to be overlooked by the breeder.

The meagerness of positive results in our experiments is not readily explainable. From the first the outbreaks of the disease upon which we relied for material were very few in number, in spite of diligent search, and in those found the usual virulence seemed to be wanting, although evidently of the infectious type.

Except in the C. Yoder outbreak the malady abruptly disappeared when a loss of little more than 50 per cent had been reached. During

the period of experimentation the weather was unprecedentedly warm, clear, and dry, rendering it practicable for mares to remain on pasture or in stalk fields, thus avoiding their close crowding in stables, a well recognized factor in promoting the virulence and spread of infectious disorders.

The rarity and benignity of the disease was more likely due to one of those periodic remissions so common in most infectious disorders, the causes of which are not well understood.

In addition to these considerations there is one more possibly quite important factor which may have defeated our purposes. A careful review of the tabulated record will show that, with one exception (that of No. 7, which was the stable companion of No. 6 from date of exposure until some days subsequent to abortion), all exposures were made some time after the process of abortion was complete. In those instances where mere cohabitation was relied upon no abortions occurred while experiment mares were in the affected herds.

In the present state of our knowledge we can not estimate the effect of this condition. In most, if not all of those cases where the disease has been clinically traced from an affected to a healthy herd, the bearer has been a pregnant mare, which has later aborted.

Can it be that the virulence of the disease ceases immediately after the abortion is complete?

The abundant negative results have served well to contradict the popular belief that the presence of noninfectious freshly aborted, or of putrid foetuses and membranes, or of recently aborted animals, is fraught with great danger to pregnant mares, or that such conditions are sufficient to generate infectious or epizootic abortion.

The direct insertion into the vagina of pregnant mares of putrid utero-vaginal discharges, placenta, etc., has likewise been shown to be free from danger to the life of the foetus. It has also been learned that the danger to the life of the foetus from manual exploration of the vagina has been greatly overestimated.

Very respectfully,

BLOOMINGTON, ILL., June 30, 1891.

W. L. WILLIAMS, V. S.

LAWS OF THE STATES AND TERRITORIES FOR THE CONTROL OF CONTAGIOUS ANIMAL DISEASES.

Laws of the States and Territories, for the control of contagious and communicable diseases of domestic animals, not heretofore published in the annual report of this Bureau, will be found below.

CALIFORNIA.

AN ACT to amend sections four hundred and four hundred and one of the penal code of the State of California, relating to contagious diseases among animals, and to renuinber said sections,

SECTION 1. The people of the State of California, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows: That section four hundred of the penal code, relating to contagious diseases among animals, is hereby amended so as to read as follows: "SECTION 402. Any person who shall knowingly sell, or offer for sale, or use, or expose, or who shall cause or procure to be sold or offered for sale, or used, or exposed, any horse, mule, or other animal having the disease known as glanders or farcy, or who shall bring, or cause to be brought, or aid in bringing into this State any sheep, hog, horse, or cattle, or any domestic animal, knowing the same to be affected with any contagious or infectious disease, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor." SEC. 2. Section four hundred and one of the penal code, relating to contagious diseases among animals, is hereby amended so as to read as follows;

“SECTION 402. Every animal having glanders or farcy shall at once be deprived of life by the owner or person having charge thereof, upon discovery or knowledge of its condition; and any such owner or person omitting or refusing to comply with the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor."

Approved, March 10, 1891.

CONNECTICUT.

AN ACT authorizing the governor to accept provisions of an act of Congress relating to the Bureau of Animal Industry.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives in general assembly convened, That the governor is hereby authorized to accept on behalf of the State, whenever in his judgment it shall be for the best interests of the State for him so to do, the rules and regulations prepared by the Commissioner of Agriculture under and in pursuance of section three of an act of Congress (approved May 29, 1884) entitled "An act for the establishment of a Bureau of Animal Industry, to prevent the exportation of diseased cattle, and to provide means for the suppression and extirpation of pleuro-pneumonia and other contagious diseases among domestic animals," and to cooperate with the authorities of the United States in the enforcement of the provisions of said act.

SEC. 2. Upon the acceptance of said rules and regulations by the governor as hereinbefore prescribed, the inspectors of the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States shall have the right of inspection, quarantine, and condemnation of animals affected with any contagious, infectious, or communicable disease or suspected to be so affected, or that have been exposed to any such disease, and may enter any grounds or premises for these purposes. They may call upon sheriff's and constables to assist them in the discharge of their duties in carrying out the provisions of said act, and it shall be the duty of sheriffs and constables to render such assistance when so called upon.

Approved, May 16, 1889.

FLORIDA.

AN ACT to create and establish a State board of health.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the State of Florida, That the governor shall, within twenty days after the passage of this act, appoint three discreet citizens of the State of Florida, who shall be confirmed by the senate, and who shall, after taking and subscribing an oath before some person competent to administer oaths, faithfully to perform the duties of their offices, constitute the State board of health.

SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of members of said board to convene in the city of Tallahassee, upon a day to be named by the governor, not more than ten days from the date of their appointment. It shall be the duty of said board, at their first meeting, to elect one of their number as president of said board. At the same meeting it shall be the duty of said board to designate and employ a physician, who shall be an expert in the diagnosis of yellow fever, smallpox, cholera, and other infectious diseases, and who must be a person of recognized ability and skilled in hygiene and sanitary science, and a graduate physician of a recognized and reputable medical college, which said person shall be known as the State health officer. The State health officer shall be the executive officer of the board and secretary of the same, and shall hold the office until removed by the board for just cause. SEC. 3. The term of office of each member of the board of health shall be four years from the date of his appointment, or until his successor is appointed and qualified, and the term of employment of State health officer shall be four years from the date of his appointment, or until his successor is appointed and qualified: Provided, That should any member of the said board be and remain absent from the State for ten days after any disease has been declared epidemic, the governor may declare his office vacant and proceed to fill the same by appointment, and should the health officer be and remain absent from the State for five days after his attention has been called to the presence of any disease in the State the board of health may declare the office vacant and proceed to fill the same by designation and employment of a suitable person to perform the duties thereof.

SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of every practicing or licensed physician in the State of Florida to report immediately to the president of the board of health, by telegram or in the most expeditious manner, every case of yellow fever, smallpox, or cholera that comes within his practice, such telegram to be paid for out of the funds to be provided for the expenses of said board of health.

SEC. 5. Any practicing or licensed physician who shall fail to report to said president any such case, in the manner provided in the preceding section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum not less than $100 nor more than $1,000, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not less than three nor more than six months.

SEC. 6. Any person or persons who shall falsely or maliciously disseminate or spread rumors or reports concerning the existence of any infectious or contagious disease shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided by section 5 of this act.

SEC. 7. It shall be the duty of the several judges of the circuit courts of this State to give in charge to the grand juries of their respective courts, sections 4, 5, and 6 of this act at each term thereof, and it shall be the duty of the grand juries of the said several courts specially to investigate in their respective counties the offenses therein specified, and to present impartially all offenders against the same.

SEC. 8. In the several counties of this State where county criminal courts of record exist, or may hereafter be established, it shall be the duty of the county solicitor of the said several courts to present and prosecute all offenders under sections 5 and 6 of this act.

SEC. 9. It shall be the duty of the president of the board of health, immediately upon the receipt of information that there is any case of yellow fever, smallpox, or cholera in any portion of this State, to order the State health officer by telegram, if he is not at hand, to proceed immediately to said place, and there to investigate the said reported case or cases of yellow fever, smallpox, or cholera, and to report to the said president by telegram the results of his said investigation; and said State health officer shall have power, and it shall be his duty, to declare said infected point to be in quarantine, and to place any and all such restrictions upon ingress or egress thereat as, in his judgment, shall be necessary to prevent a spread of the disease from the infected locality; and it shall be the duty of the said State health officer, when he shall have declared any city, town, or other place to be in quarantine, to so control the population of said city, town, or other place, and make such disposition of the same as shall, in his judgment, best protect that population and