EPITOME OF EVIDENCE ON PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 243 



great improvement. I have seen the disease in these cattle six 

 months after they were brought from Ireland to this country. 

 I have seen it as long as that in developing itself twenty-four 

 years ago. I am certain it is the same disease as it was fifty 

 years ago. I have seen a fat bullock diseased, and taken him 

 home, and slaughtered him, and put in a sound animal without 

 cleaning out the stall or litter, to see if it would take disease 

 soon. I have done that at different times, and I have put an 

 animal into a field amongst cattle that I knew had disease. 

 They always took it after a few months. My opinion was that 

 the disease was contracted very much by breathing the breath 

 of each other. I do not think it is likely the disease could 

 spread far unless there is contact. I do not think that cattle 

 one hundred yards off would have much risk, though there 

 were others there that had it. It is more than fifty years 

 since I was working amongst these cattle. Pleuro-pneumonia 

 did not pull them down in condition till a certain time. 

 Cattle among which pleuro-pneumonia occurred were kept 

 apart for some time. I never knew of a case where the 

 disease broke out amongst home cattle kept by themselves. 

 I am of opinion that could not do so, and that the disease is 

 only carried by contagion, and that it does not spring up 

 spontaneously in the beasts' bodies ; that has been my experi- 

 ence. We came to that conclusion twenty-five years ago. We 

 had a consultation at that time on the subject, and I have never 

 bought an Irish bullock since. I do not say that I have not 

 had any, because one or two might be mixed in the lot by 

 the dealer; but I have not had a single case of pleuro- 

 pneumonia for twenty-four years, except once, when it was 

 amongst a lot of black Highland bullocks, and we traced the 

 animals as having been grazed with Irish cattle above Denny ; 

 that is the only case I have had for twenty-four years. I was 

 never afraid that the disease would be carried by the cattleman. 

 He went among both diseased and healthy stock. I attribute 

 my immunity from the disease entirely to the care exercised 

 in buying cattle from respectable English aiid Scotch people, 

 and I hold that it cannot exist in Scotland if proper steps are 

 taken. I have still a large number of animals. Pleuro-pneu- 

 monia, if not imported, would die out here ; it is not indi- 

 genous in the country. If you did not introduce foreign cattle, 

 it would die out. In my youth it was unknown. It was 

 unknown till Irish cattle came into Scotland. I will tell you 

 one thing : I drove out the first six store Irish bullocks that were 

 shown in Edinburgh to Gala Water, so that the Irish importa- 

 tion of cattle is not so very old. All the orders are wrong, both 

 in regard to this and foot-and-mouth disease. You harass and 

 persecute your own people at home with orders, and put them 



