28 PROCEEDINGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 



and he felt deeply indebted to him for the care and attention he had given 

 to tlie subject, and for taking the opportunity of seeing what they might expect 

 from the Government. That was a national matter, and he thought that, 

 as botli England and Ireland would participate in the benefit of the inquiry, 

 the Government should extend pecuniary aid to the committee. Colonel Stirling 

 had approached the Government on the subject, and had been assured that 

 every suggestion the committee made would receive from the Government the 

 greatest possible consideration. Some people estimated the cost of the inquiry 

 at £-5000, and others at £10,000; but whatever it cost, the expenditure would 

 be small in comi)arison with the terrific loss which the disease caused to the 

 country at large. Professor Brown, the Pri\'y Council Inspector, who did not 

 believe in inoculation, had stated that this was not a time for inquiry, but a time 

 for action. Tliey had taken "action " in Lanarkshire, and it had cost them £12,000, 

 and would probably cost them £20,000. They had killed every animal in every place 

 except one, and there the cattle were healthy and pure because they had been 

 inoculated. 



Professor WILLIAMS, as veterinary surgeon to the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society, supported Mr Paterson in what he had said as to the value of inoculation. 

 He could assure them that inoculation had been a great success, and his belief was 

 that if it was carried out they would not only save an immense amount of money, 

 but would put an end to the disease. It was true that Professor Brown was opposed 

 to inoculation, and that he based his conclusions on the want of success that had 

 attended it on the Continent ; but he had read all the Continental reports, and the 

 whole experiments there had been a mistake from beginning to end. The Continental 

 veterinary surgeons did not know how to inoculate cattle for pleuro-pneumonip. 

 The subjects were not properly inoculated, and they knew nothing about the Ij'rnpb. 

 When they inoculated for small-pox they did not produce small-pox, but only a 

 modified form of the disease ; and in the same way they jwoduced by inoculation a 

 modified form of pleuro-pneumonia in the tail of the cow. He did not think the 

 exjieriments would cost anything like £5000, but that a very moderate expenditure 

 would suffice ; and he believed that pleuro-pneumonia could be prevented without 

 the very disastrous process of slaughtering the cattle. 



The Rev. John Gillespie said he observed from newspapers published south of 

 the Tweed that it was taken for granted that the Highland Society had pronounced 

 in favour of the success of inoculation. The Society had done nothing of the kind. 

 What they had said was that their experience had been such as to warrant a thorough 

 and searching inquiry ; but the Society was committed to nothing beyond the 

 determination to do all they could to understand, not only the value of inoculation, 

 but the whole subject of i^leuro-pneumonia. 



Mr Stirling said their ijockets were more likely to be affected by being misrepre- 

 sented in Canadian and American jjapers than in English jiapers. If the Canadians 

 and Americans believed that the Society had pronounced in favour of inoculation, 

 they would be very loth to receive any of their home-bred cattle. For that reason 

 alone they should not jjledge themselves to any line of action without very full and 

 most impartial inquiry. 



Sir Graham Montgomery said he would like to hear if the committee had obtained 

 any further information with reference to the disease than was possessed by the Privy 

 Council in London ? 



Mr Paterson said, as the committee were still taking evidence and consulting the 

 leading veterinary surgeons in the country, they were unwilling to express any hasty 

 opinion. He did not wish, therefore, to go counter to Professor Brown, but to 

 say that the pole-axe should be applied to all cattle aff'ected was abhorrent to 

 human nature and a disgrace to present-day science. He knew of many instances 

 where inoculation had proved of great benefit, but he was not pledged to it, nor 

 were the committee. He observed that Mr Clement Stephenson, Newcastle, on 

 being applied to the other day by the Aberdeenshire farmers, had given his 

 opinion in favoiir of the pole-axe ; but against that opinion he (Mr Paterson) placed 

 the exjjerience of a well-known breeder like Mr Pole-Gell, who after an outbreak 

 among his cattle, had taken the virus off the lungs of a diseased animal, and had 

 the remainder inoculated, with the result that not one had died. 



The Chairman thovight it would be more advantageous that the committee should 

 be allowed to finish their deliberations and present their complete report before 

 any discussion took place, so that they might consider it carefully and be able to 

 come to a decisive opinion. 



This suggestion was adopted, and the subject was allowed to drop. 



The Claims of Dundee. 

 Captain Clathills Henderson of Invergowrie, Dundee, brought under the 

 notice of the Directors the claims which Dundee had to a visit from the Society. 



