248 EPITOME OF EVIDENCE ON PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 



the disease. Where the disease is already established, you get 

 in the majority of cases no result at the seat of operation. 

 In dealing with an outbreak, if I have got a certain appear- 

 ance on the tip of the tail, though not actually a lesion, and the 

 temperature remains an average temperature till the fourteenth 

 day, if I cannot detect abnormal lung sounds, and the animals 

 are feeding, I believe that after the inoculation the animals are 

 safe. It might be laid down as a rule that such animals as do 

 not accept the inoculation in some form should be slaughtered as 

 suspected. I would consider the non-taking on of the inoculation 

 as a suspicious indication to be inquired into. I would slaughter 

 any that were suspected. You know where the animal came 

 from first, and what was the state of health in the place where 

 it came from. If inoculation became compulsory, there should 

 be a system of branding animals, certifying that at the time of 

 the sale, and for a certain time prior to that, they were absolutely 

 healthy. If we had such a thing as that, the disease that is in 

 Ireland could not be. For years and years Edinburgh was a 

 hotbed of disease, but now it is one of the healthiest parts in the 

 kingdom, and that because the disease has never gone beyond 

 the first two or three cases. I do not think that we have enough 

 of powers. My idea is that the virus is never too strong ; it is 

 a virus unlike other poisons — it will not bear diluting. The 

 pure lung virus is only got in an early stage of the disease. You 

 may kill an animal, and not get enough virus to inoculate one 

 animal, because the lung has passed beyond the stage when it 

 contains the pure virus and nothing else. From using impure 

 virus there would be blood poisoning, and you would produce a 

 spurious tail lesion, and the animals are supposed to be inocu- 

 lated when they are not. So long as I have the true pleuro- 

 pneumonia lesion, I can go on inoculating. There is none so good 

 as from the lung lesion. When the virus is transmitted by inocu 

 lating from tail to tail, it loses its potency, and after the second 

 time it would fail to be sufficiently effectual. In dealing with 

 an outbreak, an operator does not require to go out of the byre — 

 he has the material ready at hand in the affected animal. From 

 microscopical observation, I believe you get the same lesion in the 

 tail as in the lung. There is but one way of disseminating this 

 disease, that is from the lungs. It would not be as effectual if you 

 were to take up the system of stamping out by slaughtering, and, 

 instead of inoculating, isolate the animals for a certain time, be- 

 cause these animals you isolate had been exposed to the disease, 

 and the incubative period may be six months. Inoculation is 

 a test as to whether the beast has pleuro-pneumonia, even in 

 the initiatory stages. There are various methods of inoculation. 

 I think that is a thing in regard to which it would be very 

 useful to have experiments carried on. It is possible to stamp 



