Pleuro-piicunwuia in Cattlc 



541 



considered from the stand-point necessarily 

 adopted by the Chamber, might be included 

 in the same category, but the prevention of 

 the spread of contagious diseases among live 

 stock, and the means to be taken for the 

 purpose of improving the present system of 

 cattle traffic, are matters in which the agri- 

 culturists of England and Ireland are equally 

 interested with the farmers of Scotland, ^^'e 

 may go further, and say that the entire com- 

 munity is affected by it, for the consumers of 

 meat have quite as deep an interest in the 

 question as those who produce it. It is not 

 a question in which consumers and producers 

 are placed in opposition to each other, al- 

 though attempts have been made, even in 

 Parliament, to shew that such is the case. 

 It is surely not conducive to the interests 

 of farmers that meat should be rendered 

 scarce and dear in consequence of mortality 

 among live stock, arising from diseases which 

 are to a great extent preventible by the exer^ 

 cise of certain very obvious precautionary 

 measures, but v/hich cannot be carried into 

 etiect without legislative action. 



The report of the directors of the Scottish 

 Chamber of Agriculture, which appeared in 

 our last impression, recommends that an Act 

 of Parliament should be obtained for the 

 jnirpose of regulating the home traffic in 

 animals, by railway and steamboat, and for 

 introducing certain much required provisions 

 for the watering of cattle, and their protection 

 from injury during transit ; for the separation 

 of store cattle and dairy cows in the fat stock 

 markets of large towns ; and for regulating 

 the importation of foreign cattle, and the 

 movement of home stock affected with con- 

 tagious diseases. These recommendations 

 were made by the directors after a full con- 

 sideration of the opinions expressed by the 

 veterinary surgeons with whom they had con- 

 sulted. These gentlemen were Professors 

 Simonds and Finlay Dun for England ; Pro- 

 fessor Ferguson, chief of the Ciovernment 

 veterinary department, Ireland ; Mr Edwards 

 for Wales; Professors Williams and M'Call for 

 Scotland ; and the mere enumeration of these 

 gentlemen's names is sufficient to prove the 



value of the Report which has been laid before 

 the Chamber. 



The Directors recommend, in the first 

 place, that the Act of Parliament which they 

 consider necessary should contain 



"Very stringent regulations to ensure the e.xpeditious 

 transit of animals, and the watering of them during 

 transit, when the time of transit exceeds ten hours ; 

 the thorough cleansing and disinfecting of all trucks, 

 lioxes, steam-boats, loading places, and pens ; the 

 ^■entilation of the holds of steam-boats carrying cattle ; 

 the covering of railway trucks, so as to protect the 

 animals from sun and rain ; and that such regidations 

 should be enforced under Government superinten- 

 dence."' 



We need scarcely enlarge on the import- 

 ance of the points involved in the above re- 

 commendation, for we have frequently 

 urged the adoption of measures having 

 the same objects in view. So obvious, 

 in fact, is the necessity for reformation 

 in cattle transit that the Chamber never 

 dreamt of questioning the propriety of the 

 Directors' views on the subject; and it is only 

 to be regretted that railway and steamboat 

 companies do not voluntarily undertake the 

 removal of the evils complained of, instead 

 of putting off the matter, as they are apparently 

 inclined to do, until an Act of Parliament 

 shall compel them to adopt measures for that 

 purpose. They cannot now plead ignorance of 

 the steps that should be taken, or the plans 

 whereby live stock, carried by rail, may be 

 fed and watered during the journey, without 

 loss of time, confusion, or material expense. 

 Those plans, so far as they are applicable to 

 railways, have been approved of by practical 

 men connected with railway traffic as well as 

 by agriculturists, and it is therefore the duty 

 of all railway companies which convey live 

 stock, fairly and fully to test the plans to 

 which we refer. 



The next recommendation of the Di- 

 rectors is — 



" That while it seems not desirable, nor indeed prac- 

 ticaljle, to dispense with fat stock markets in or for 

 large towns, the present system of shewing store cattle 

 and dairy cows in the fat markets is one of the most 

 fruitful causes of spreading infectious diseases of all 

 kinds ; and, therefore, in or near towns where fat 



