150 EErORT ON MURRAIN. 



general means. The farmer and dairyman, by the exercise of 

 great caution and attention to sanitary regulations, may greatly 

 avert its occurrence among their stock, by introducing ani- 

 mals selected from healthy herds and localities ; his purchases, 

 when made in public markets, being confined to men of well- 

 known honesty ; and particularly when its introduction among 

 mixed stock will affect his profits, so materially, a course of 

 quarantine might be adopted with great advantage to ensure 

 exemption from the incubatory stage. Farmers and others, 

 who annually let off portions of their land, might also exer- 

 cise rigid scrutiny against cattle to be introduced, and imported 

 cattle, affected, or supposed to be so, detained until the crisis is 

 past. The latter proceeding, I believe, is carried out in some, if 

 not all, our large places of import, and I think with benefit, as 

 the exporters are more alive to the necessity of forwarding cattle 

 which are fully believed to be sound ; but even under such rigid 

 exertions at places of export, with short and rapid sea passages, 

 and, as before observed, the subtle nature of the disease, all 

 doubtless admits of animals being forwarded in which murrain is 

 undergoing the incubatory stage, needing only such exciting 

 causes as the crowding together upon the deck or in the hold of 

 a ship to develope the whole train of symptoms. 



Another aspect, in which, the disease and its consequences 

 may be viewed, and also demands a consideration of the utmost 

 importance, is involved in the proposition — "That it is best, in 

 some instances, to solicit, and even obtain, this disease ;" and 

 for this purpose the subject of innoculation deserves a trial as 

 treatment of a prophylactic character on the following grounds: — 

 The most serious losses which occur from murrain do not 

 arise from its fatality or malignancy as a general rule, but from 

 the serious interruption to milking and fattening properties; 

 therefore it should be our desire, if possible, to ensure our 

 cattle having suffered from it prior to the period of their 

 profit and usefulness arrives, more especially since we are aware 

 that generally animals are not usually affected more than once 

 during their lifetime, and that innoculation produces the disease 

 in a modified or less severe form, and produces, as in other diseases 

 of a like character, a greater insusceptibility to its more compli- 

 cated forms. The peculiar nature of murrain particularly favours 

 this proceeding, being easily communicated from one beast to 

 another. One animal will infect a whole herd, and render quite 

 unnecessary the process of an operation for its conveyance. 

 Young cattle of all kinds, before being housed for their respec- 

 tive purposes, therefore, should be seen through the disease, 

 either by being directly innoculated, or introduced to some iso- 

 lated place to others under its effects, all proper domestic treat- 

 ment being likewise carried out. One or two deaths at this time 



