2692 Poster, a notice from the Selectmen concerning foot and mouth disease in Lexington, January 9, 1871

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TT LEXINGTON, January 9, 1871. In consequence of the prevalence of a contagious and dangerous disease among neat cattle, known as Epizootic Aphtha, or Foot and Mouth Disease, the Selectmen, after due consideration, and in virtue of the authority reposed in them by law, (see Chapter 220 of the Acts of 1860,) have adopted the following Regulations, to remain in force during the continuance of the disease in this region, in order to prevent the spread of a disease which has proved so ruinous abroad, and which would prove a sore calamity, if it should break out in the Milk Dairies in Lexington. REGULATIONS . 1. No Neat Cattle shall be driven or transported from Lexington to Brighton, Cambridge, or other marts of the cattle trade, where the Foot and Mouth Disease is supposed to have prevailed; and no neat cattle shall be driven or transported into Lexington from Brighton, Cambridge, or other marts as aforesaid; nor shall any neat cattle be driven or transported through the town of Lexington destined for or coming from such marts of trade. 2. If the said Disease shall make its appearance in any herd of cattle within the Town of Lexington, the animal so affected shall at once be separated from the rest of the herd, and the owner or the person having the care and custody of said herd, shall forthwith notify the Selectmen, one or more of whom shall without delay visit the premises, -and see that the diseased animal is so removed from the rest of the herd, and from all other neat cattle, as to prevent the spread of the disease; and that all known expedients be used to cleanse the premises where the diseased animal had been kept, for the safety of the rest of the herd. 3. In case any person shall wilfully neglect or refuse to comply with the provisions of law relative to this subject, or with the Regulations of the Commissioners on Contagious Diseases among Cattle, or with these Regulations; or shall offer for sale any animal known to be affected by the disease, or shall offer for sale the milk of any cow known to be so diseased, or the meat of any such diseased animal—it is hoped that the good people of Lexington will at once give notice to the Selectmen, so that they may take immediate measures to have the laws and Regulations enforced, and that the offenders may be.made to feel the penalty of the law in such cases made and provided. 4. These Regulations shall be handed to the Town Clerk, whose duty it is to enter the same -upon the Town Record; and printed copies of the same shall be sent to the principal marts of the cattle trade, and to the adjoining towns, and be posted up in conspicuous places in different parts of Lexington, that the people may be apprized of the danger to which their stock is exposed, and that they may use their influence to save the public from the threatened calamity. CHARLES HUDSON, S. C. WHITCHER, R. W. REED, Selectmen of Lexington. N. B. The Commissioners in their Circular addressed to the Selectmen say: The disease is communicated by the contact of healthy with sick animals, by all inanimate things that have become contaminated, and by yarding healthy cattle on the same land, or driving them on roads previously trodden by those'diseased. The Cattle Yards of Brighton are apparently contaminated with the virus of the disease, and animals driven thence carry and communicate it wherever they go."