THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. 463 



lessons as are yielded above. Since 1848 there have been seven Acts 

 of Parliament bearing the general titles of Contagious Diseases 

 (Animals) Acts. Measures to " stamp out," as the phrase goes, this 

 or that disease, have been called for as imperative. Measures have 

 been passed, and then, expectation not having been fulfilled, amended 

 measures have been passed, and then reamended measures ; so that 

 of late no session has gone by without a bill to cure evils which 

 previous bills tried to cure, but did not. Notwithstanding the keen 

 interest felt by the ruling classes in the success of these measures, they 

 have succeeded so ill, that the " foot-and-mouth disease " has not been 

 " stamped out," has not even been kept in check, but during the past 

 year has spread alarmingly in various parts of the kingdom. Con- 

 tinually the Times has had blaming letters and reports of local meet- 

 ings called to condemn the existing laws, and to insist on better. 

 From all quarters there have come accounts of ineffective regulations 

 and incapable officials of policemen who do the work of veterinary 

 surgeons of machinery described by Mr. Fleming, veterinary surgeon 

 of the Royal Engineers, as " clumsy, disjointed, and inefficient." l 



Is it alleged that the goodness of State-agency cannot be judged 

 by measures so recent, the administration of which is at present 

 imperfect. If so, let us look at that form of State-agency which is of 

 most ancient date, and has had the longest time for perfecting its 

 adjustments let us take the law in general, and its administration in 

 general. Needs there do more than name these to remind the reader 

 of the amazing inefficiency, confusion, doubtfulness, delay, which, 

 proverbial from early times, continue still ? Of penal statutes alone, 

 which are assumed to be known by every citizen, 14,408 had been 

 enacted from the time of Edward III. down to 1844. As was said by 



1 Let me here add what seems to be a not impossible cause, or at any rate part- 

 cause, of the failure. The clew is given by a letter in the Times, signed " Land-owner," 

 dating Tollesbury, Essex, August 2, 1872. He bought " ten fine young steers, perfectly free 

 from any symptom of disease," and " passed sound by the inspector of foreign stock." 

 They were attacked by foot-and-mouth disease after five days passed in fresh paddocks 

 with the best food. On inquiry he found that foreign stock, however healthy, " ' mostly 

 all go down with it' after the passage." And then, in proposing a remedy, he gives us a 

 fact of which he does not seem to recognize the meaning. He suggests, " that, instead 

 of the present quarantine at Harwich, which consists in driving the stock from the steamer 

 into pens for a limited number of hours," etc., etc. If this description of the quarantine 

 is correct, the spread of the disease is accounted for. Every new drove of cattle is kept 

 for hours in an infected pen. Unless the successive droves have been all healthy (which 

 the very institution of the quarantine implies that they have not been), some of them have 

 left in the pen diseased matter from their mouths and feet. Even if disinfectants are 

 used after each occupation, the risk is great the disinfection is almost certain to be inad- 

 equate. Nay, even if the pen is adequately disinfected every time, yet if there is not 

 also a complete disinfection of the landing appliances, the landing-stage, and the track to 

 the pen, the disease will be communicated. No wonder healthy cattle " ' mostly go dojvn 

 with it ' after the passage." The quarantine regulations, if they are such as here implied, 

 might with perfect truth be called " regulations for the better diffusion of cattle- 

 diseases." 



