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the animals were affected with something like glanders. It no doubt was glanders, as a few days after it was discovered that the company sold a pair of mules when at Phenix that had the disease in its last stages, and these must have helped to extend it. Thus glandered and farcied animals have been found worked and driven on the streets, spreading the poison by contact, leaving it at the public watering places, at the hitching and standing places, and wherever they went. In some instances there has been utter neglect to purify the stalls, stables, &c., from which diseased animals have been taken; and much evil has been done by men called "horse doctors," whose ignorance and presumption are only equalled by the confidence of those who employ them. We have found horses, some with glanders in a fearful form, under treatment for cataarh, and and others, with swelled legs, discharging from farcy sores, treated for sprains, and in some instances, when the disease was known, it was under treatment by the "doctors," they claiming the ability to cure it, and doing nothing in the mean time to protect sound animals from danger.

The twenty-one cases we have recorded, are not, probably, a quarter of all that have occurred in the State during the year; but they are enough to excite alarm, for of all the discases to which animals are liable, none is more terrible.

Glanders and farcy are one and the same disease-only different developments of the same specific poison. It is contagious and infectious. Horses and mules seem most obnoxious to it, but other animals and men, may take it by contact; and to all alike it is fatal. Within the last four years, three men in this city and one in Pawtucket, have died of it, the poison having been absorbed through cuts or sores on the hands.

It is difficult to distinguish glanders in its incipient stage from a simple cataarh, and farcy may be mistaken for an injury, or cutaneous affection, not of a dangerous nature. For this reason, and now especially, when the disease is so prevalent, in every case at all resembling it, the best veterinary skill should be consulted. If there is any doubt of its character, the subject should be securely isolated, until it is decided; then, should it prove to be the disease, there is but one course to pursue, the animal should be killed at once and properly buried.

To aid in extirpating the disease, all who have the charge of animals should be induced if possible, on the least suspicion of its appearance, to have it examined by some one or more competent persons, designated for that purpose, and then be governed by the advice given. If this examination could be had free of charge to the applicant, it would be more likely to be effectual. Much might be done, also, by a careful inspection of public, and in many instances, of private stables from time to time. Then it should be seen, that there is no failure to thoroughly cleanse and disinfect the places that have been occupied by such diseased animals, and all the objects used upon or around them.

We would suggest the importance of some provision being made for the removal and burial of glandered and farcied animals. There are those who are prepared to do it, but it cannot be expected that they will perform such disagreeable and dangerous business, without pay from some one, and the owners who suddenly find themselves deprived of their horses, for no fault of their own, it may be, are often too poor to meet the expense.

N. A. FISHER,

General Agent, R. I. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

RHODE ISLAND CATTLE COMMISSION.

GLANDERS IN HORSES.

At a meeting of the Board of Cattle Commissioners on Thursday, March 7th, 1878, the following regulations were adopted, and ordered to be published:

1. The owner of, or any person having the care of, any horse or other animal, knowing the same to have the disease called glanders or farcy, shall keep such horse or other animal apart and separate from all other horses or animals.

2. The owner, or any person having the care of any horse or other animal, knowing the same to have the disease called glanders or farcy, shall not lead, nor drive, nor permit such horse or other animal to go in or over any public street, road, lane or highway in this State.

3. Any veterinary surgeon or other person who shall have knowledge of any horse or other animal that has the disease called glanders or farcy, shall report the existence and location of such case of disease to some member of the Cattle Commission, within twenty-four hours after receiving knowledge of the same.

The regulations passed June 9, 1877, are rescinded.

The penalty for failure to comply with the above regulations, as fixed by Section 8, Chapter 76, of the General Statutes, is a fine not exceeding three hundred dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding one year.

The first section of the same chapter provides that any person who shall knowingly expose a horse or other animal having any infectious or contagious disease to other horses or animals not infected with such disease, shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars.

Section 7 provides that any person who shall sell or offer to sell any horse or other domestic animal, known to him to be infected with any contagious disease, shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars, or be imprisoned not exceeding two years, or both at the discretion of the court.

All persons are urgently requested to give immediate information to some member of the Cattle Commission of any known or suspected case of glanders or farcy that may come to their knowledge, and such cases will be immediately investigated and measures taken to prevent the spread of the disease.

The names and post office address of the members of the Cattle Commission are as follows: Edwin M. Snow, Chairman, Providence; Edwin Darling, Pawtucket; Samuel W. Church, Bristol; Joseph Osborn, Tiverton; Nathaniel C. Peckham, Kingston; Jonathan Brayton, Centreville.

By order of the Cattle Commission,

PROVIDENCE, March 11, 1878.

EDWIN M. SNOW,

Chairman and Secretary.

EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

STATE BOARD OF PHARMACY,

MADE TO THE

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

1878.

PROVIDENCE:

E. L. FREEMAN & CO., PRINTERS TO THE STATE.

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