114 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



generally attributed to the importation of two calves 

 from Holland by a- farmer residing at Poplar, with a 

 view of improving his breed, and in whose systems the 

 disease was incubated. 



Dr. Layard, in his Essay on the disease, says, how- 

 ever, that an opinion prevailed that it was brought over 

 by an English tanner, who had purchased "a parcel of 

 distempered hides in Zealand very cheap, because they 

 were forbidden to be sold there, and should have been 

 buried." It seems, therefore, to have been confidently 

 believed at the time that the disease was an imported 

 one — a circumstance of much practical value, now that 

 we are receiving several hundreds of cattle week by week 

 from the Continent ; although, as this Report will here- 

 after show, our own investigations have proved that no 

 fear need be entertained at present of " the great cattle 

 murrain" visiting our shores. Notwithstanding the 

 deep and painful interest which this disease excited, and 

 the efforts made by the Government of the day to stay 

 its ravages, no correct estimate can be formed of the 

 numbers of cattle which were lost to the country from 

 its duration and extension ; but it was ascertained by 

 one of the Commissioners appointed by the Govern- 

 ment that in Nottinghamshire alone 40,000 head of 

 cattle perished in six months, and in Cheshire upwards 

 of 30,000 in the same space of time. 



By a special Act of Parliament, the King in Council 

 was empowered to issue such orders as were deemed the 

 most effective to arrest the progress of the pest. In- 

 structions were thereupon given, 



1st. For the killing of all the infected animals, and 

 burying them entire with the skins on, " slashed from 

 head to tail," that they might not be used for the pur- 

 pose of the manufacturer. 



2nd. For the burning of all the hay and straw used 

 about the animals. 



3rd. For the cleaning and fumigating the sheds, &c. , 

 and for no sound cattle to be put in them for two months 

 after the removal of the diseased. 



4th. For no recovered animal to be allowed to go near 

 others for a month after its convalescence. 



5th. For no diseased cattle to be driven to fairs 

 or markets, nor for the flesh to be used as food for 

 dogs, &c. 



6th. For no healthy cattle to be removed from a farm 

 where the disease had prevailed in less than a month 

 after its disappearance. 



And, lastly, orders were issued for the notice of an 

 outbreak to be immediately sent by the farmers to either 

 the constables, churchwardens, overseers, or the special 

 inspectors appointed by the magistrates acting for the 

 parish or district. The Government also undertook to 

 pay forty shillings for every ox, bull, or cow which was 

 killed, and ten shillings for every calf, with a corre- 

 sponding price for their skins. 



Mr. Youatt, in his account of the disease, as pub- 

 lished in the work entitled " Cattle," says, "Of the 

 propriety of this bonus for the destruction of infected 

 cattle, there cannot be a doubt, for there were numerous 

 instances in which those who began to. kill the sick as 

 soon as the distemper appeared among their cattle, lost 



very few ; but others, who would kill none until their 

 own folly had made them wiser, did not save more than 

 one out of ten." 



Many difficulties were thrown in the way of carrying 

 out the instructions, and not a few impositions were 

 practised by some designing persons claiming the award 

 for old and worn-out animals, as well as for those which 

 wei'e suffering from totally different diseases. In this 

 day, now that veterinary surgeons are practising in every 

 part of the country, such frauds would scarcely be at- 

 tempted ; and we believe, in the event of occasicm re- 

 quiring it, that a system of inspection, comparatively 

 inexpensive, might be devised which would effectually 

 prevent any instances of the kind. 



It is further recorded that in one year, the third of 

 the existence of the disease, ^£'135, 000 was paid out of 

 the Treasury as a recompense for the cattle killed ac- 

 cording to the prescribed orders, and that during the 

 same year 80,000 head of cattle were killed, and nearly 

 double that number died from the disease. To meet 

 this alarming state of things, and the difficulties which 

 sprung out of the adoption of the measures of the Go- 

 vernment, various other Orders of Council were promul- 

 gated, and in the third order we find that no cattle, fat 

 or lean, would be suffered to pass the Humber and the 

 Trent northward from its date, namely, January 19th, 

 1747, to the 27th of the following March ; the object 

 evidently being to protect the cattle in the northern 

 counties by cutting off all direct communication between 

 them and the infected districts for two months. 



Newby, in an appendix to his work on mangel-wurzel, 

 states that the cattle fair at Barnet had its origin in the 

 existence of this disease. " The fair," he says, ' 

 formerly kept at Islington, till the distemper, which 

 raged violently among the cows at that place in 1746, 

 obliged the Welshmen to remove to Barnet, where it has 

 been continued ever since." 



Great as were the losses, no reasonable doubt can be 

 entertained that they would have been much augmented 

 had not the Government taken the course it did ; and 

 we also fear that the continuance of the disease would have 

 been extended over a far greater number of years than 

 it was. The attempts at cure were not satisfactory, and 

 very little was known of the true nature of the malady 

 even by those members of the medical profession who 

 gave attention to it, for at that time there were no scien- 

 tifically educated veterinary practitioners. After a careful 

 perusal and analysation of the writings of the different 

 physicians who have treated of the subject, we believe 

 that we are justified in saying that the malady was iden- 

 tical with that which has recently excited so much fear 

 and alarm in the public mind, as being likely to be in- 

 troduced from the continent. 



From the period of a subsidence both in the amount 

 and virulence of this cattle pest in 1754-5 until its final 

 departure a few years afterwards, England appears to 

 have been singularly exempt from epizootic diseases, and 

 to have remained so down to August, 1839, when great 

 anxiety was created by the sudden and almost simulta- 

 neous appearance of a "new affection" (although pro- 

 bably of the same nature as that of 1713-14) among the 



