41-i 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



mi-.undefslaudiug with the Jefemknt; had several "strip- 

 pers" on Mi Uml i'l AiJiCiist last; pcrlmfs he had 50 or 60; 

 luiil uo old co*3 ; couli not tell huw iu^.ii.v luiiidred honied 

 ca.tle he had on liii land in that mouth ; had several hundreds, 

 nljout 250 ; had these from the previous October ; his raau 

 had sold beasts to a butcher named (jeorge Ilirley ; had only 

 two distempered cows ou his land before the lit of October, 

 Hiid these he disp-'sed of at once ; in the year 1847 he lost 125 

 head of cattle ; could not tell where he bought these, but could 

 8.vear positively that he had no distempered cow on hia hnds 

 f.ir nine months before the fair at Ballinasloe ; about nine or 

 tfii years a.ijo a man of liia made an eufjagement about a horse 

 he sold to a party, and he (Mr. Battersby) defended him ; be- 

 fore he bought the cattle heard that there was a good deal of 

 (!i^t>-•nlpL■r in tlie fair; would not consider it safe to put sound 

 cattle ujioii land where thera had been distempered cattle be- 

 f,)re three months; thought there was great danger from the 

 virus, the saliva, distempered mucous, and droppings from the 

 ni'juths of diseased cattle remaining upon the land ; the disease 

 «ai not perceptible for one month to six weeks; detailed the 

 py (iptoms exhibited in the first week after its development; 

 th'.' annual gets off its feed, has a cough and weeping eyes, &c. ; 

 the disease is highly contagious, and he believed infectious ; 

 the defendant said )o him rhat statements were valueless ; he 

 Wrut to a table, t jok up a book, and said, " So help me God 

 I he cittle were sound, and I had not a single disttmpered cow 

 upon ray land." 



To Mr. Smylhe— The heifers (150) tbat did not take the 

 d stemper were separated from the defeiidant's cattle ; some of 

 them were forty miles asundtr. 



James Murphy exami:-,cd by Mr. Maunsell— Wa? the plaiii- 

 till's herd ; was present when he puri:haaed the cattle from 

 the defen;lant ; hid charge of the heifers ; took every care of 

 t!;em ; drove them six n.iles the first day, and nine or ten the 

 ) ext d;iy ; delayed longer than usual, ia co.'iseqneuce of the 

 multitude of cattle which he had to drivo; when he saw Mr. 

 Juhnaui (jii his own land he said that the cattle hid the dis- 

 tunper, and lie pointed out two that had disease; ou the luxl 

 diywluu the cattle were at GarryhinJou the herd said that 

 tto of them were sick. 



Cross-eximincd I'y Mr. Ball, Q, C. — Had the cattle oa the 

 fii:ld of the hotel-keeper at Shannon Brid^'e ; there were other 

 c..ttle (.in that land which had been sold at BaUinasloe ; the 

 rattle remained that i!i{(ht at Shannon Bridge ; they slept at 

 I'Vaiikforc the next u'ght ; ou the third night they slept at 

 'i'inuahinch ; paid for the grass ; there were no oilier cattle 

 there ; the cattle day, and the day before that at Ballinasloe, 

 were fine days. 



To Mr. Maunsell — Prevented the cattle from mixing with 

 other cattle every nigiit. 



Mr. George Jobnsou examined by Mr. Byrne — The herd 

 brouiiit tha cittlc to his fiel.l after the fair; observed two of 

 them lyiug do-.vn ou the field, and expresccd the opicion that 

 they had t!ie disteroper. 



Bobcrt llickey examined by Mr. H. Smjthe, Q.C. — Was of 

 the Uublin firm " Hickey and Hanberry ;" ou the 19th of 

 October sold a sick beast for th"! plaintiff for £7 ; she was 

 bidly alfected with "pleuro pneumonia;" considered that the 

 disease was contagious ; the beast must have been sick more 

 tMan a month ; sold other sick animals for the plaintiff'. 



Owen Dunne examined by Mr: Maunsell — On the 14th of 

 October brought a heiier of lot No. 1 1 to the butcher ; ou being 

 opened that beast exhibited symptoms of disease ; the luugs 

 and other parts were a mass of yellow matter. 



Joseph Kilbci examined by Mr. Byrne — Is a salemaster in 

 Liverpool and a grazier in Ireland ; several of tlie cattle were 

 sent to him which had the lung disease; his experience was 

 considerable ; the disease was latent about six weeks before it 

 exhibited itself ; was examined aa a v/itness before the House 

 of Commons relative to the disease; witness made the sales 

 for the plaintiff ; the cattle, if sound, would have brought £G 

 per head more than they did. 



To Mr. Battersby — Saw the cattle in the fair; did not ob- 

 serve them much, but thought at the time that they were sold 

 at a cheap rate ; considered that in a fat market, not a store 

 market, b jth buyer and seller could know that disease existed 

 in cattle if they were thin ; Liverpool was a fat market— a 

 town irfcrket ; Ballinasloe a store or fair market ; cattle were 

 often sold as sound tiiat were unsound; adhered to the evi- 

 dence which he had given before the committee. 



Mr, Anthgny Allea examined—Is a sAlemftUei ; lives iu 



Wicklow; is aa extensive grazier; the disease ia highly ccn- 

 tagious; it did not develope itself earlier than sis weeks; had 

 experience of the disease in cattle that bad been sold to him- 

 self. 



Patrick Maher — Is an extensive grazier in Meath ; the dis- 

 ease is contagious ; it takes a month or longer to develope the 

 disease; a beast whose lungs were a jelly on the 14th of Oc- 

 tober must have been infected before the 9th. 



To Mr. Ball, Q.C. — Could not say whether the disease was 

 in the air, or was communicated by food or touch, or by all of 

 these ; but the getieral o;>iniou amongst those with whom he 

 associated was that the disease was contagious. 



Mr. Battersby, Q,.C., stated the defendant's case in an able 

 speech. He knew it would be difficult to counteract the effect 

 that had been made upon their minds luy the address of hia 

 excellent aud most pLiusible frieud, Mr. M'Uonough. There 

 was not any doubt that the plaintiff had sustained a IjSs: the 

 question was, who was to bear that loss ? Toe case for the 

 defendant was, that 'he had 496 head of cattle, iu lots of 30 

 each, and that not one of them was diseased. The beasts sold 

 to other persons were sound ; not a single one of tbem wag 

 unsound. The defendant was not only an honest dealer, but 

 a liberal one also, and it would be a hard case if he were now 

 obliged to pay the plaintiff for cattle that had taken the 

 distemper after they left his hands. There were 93 beasts that 

 had been bought in the mouth of April. The defendant did 

 not tell the plaintiff that all these had been reared from calves, 

 but he spoke of the first lot at which he looked. Ou the 2Uh 

 of August there was one beast that was diseased, but the jest 

 were perfect'y sound. Could it be held thut a dealer was re- 

 sponsible for every head of cattle that might happen to die ? 

 The warranty was not confined to cattle: it was given as to 

 horses, and even in the case of aa insurance upon life. Sup- 

 pose a life, iusiire 1 upon the 24th of August, exhiliited ou the 

 14th of October the symptoms of a latent disease, would it be 

 an answer to the widow that there was an invisible germ of dis- 

 ease? The germ might exist, but this was not the disease itself. 

 When disease did arise it was perceptible from the first moment 

 of its existence. Tue disease was, iu fact, aa iiifltiminatiou 

 of the luugs, and could that disease iu a horse be distinguished 

 from tlie same disease in a cow ? There was no law of science 

 or art to show ihe rapidity with which such a disease pro- 

 gressed, bat it was palpable that when it existed it developed 

 itself. Tlie fair of Ballinasloe was full of diseased beasts, aud 

 as the disease was contagious or infections, there was an 

 abuBdar.t opportunity for contracting it at the fair, even if the 

 cattle bad not been for several days travelling along the road 

 to the farm of the plaintiff. What security was there if a man 

 could be held responsible for the breaking out of any imper- 

 ceptible " germ" ? The effect of such a stringent rule would 

 be, that every seller in liallinasloe would have a board displayed 

 near his cattle with these printed words, "These cattle are not 

 vvarranti'd sound." Were they to trust to such a warranty as 

 that relied upon by the plaintiff, it would be a prolific source 

 of litigation. " Germ, virus, warranty," would be three most 

 nifigical, most pcjtent words, to put money into the pockets of 

 the bar of Ireland. If they sold a horse, and warranted him 

 as sound, any man who understood the subject could pronounce 

 an opinion as to its soundness ; but here was a esse where 

 confessedly there was no appearance of disease when the cattle 

 were sold ; aud because they afterwards got distempered, the 

 defendant was to be held responsible. It was a strange and 

 most dangerous proposition. The learned counsel then called 

 evidence for the defence, 



Walter F. M'Dooough, defendant, examined by Mr. Ball, 

 QC.— Resided near Ballinasloe; grazed about 1,100 head of 

 cattle in the year ; sold three lots to the plaintiff at the fair ; 

 they had been brought from his farm ; 27 of the lot of No. 11 

 had beeu grazed upon the island of Lniisshank, in the King's 

 County ; that lot consisted of 30 ; three of the lot were fed in 

 Roscommon; there were two cases of distemper on the island, 

 one iu July, the other in August ; sold two at the fair of Eyre- 

 court to a butcher for £25 ; that butcher, whose name was 

 Bariett, had gone to America ; never had a sick beast siuce 

 that day anywhere; sold at Banagher60 that had been grazing 

 on the island; they were perfectly sound ; sold 30 to Mr, 

 Eyre, and 30 to Mr. Malone. 



Mr. M'Donougli, Q.C, objected to this evidence. Would 

 Dycer iu Dubliu be permitted to give evidence that he sold 60 

 horses that were sound as an answer to an alleged breach of 

 warrftnty in the case of an uuaound horse ? 



