The President's Address at General Meeting. 431 



worn out, liacl become less intense or less contagious than it was a 

 year before. This, bowever, is not the case, as tbrougbout tbe wbole 

 of this visitation the nature and character of the attacks have been 

 remarkably uniform, and in the very latest cases, the disease has 

 shown itself just as contagious and just as fatal as at the first com- 

 mencement. 



I have already shown that we, as a nation, have incurred a 

 very heavy loss rather than admit that om- scientific means and 

 appliances are as insufficient now to cure or even mitigate this disease 

 as they were a century ago, in this country, or as they are in other 

 countries up to the present day, but having paid so dearly for our 

 experience, it would be totally inconsistent with the business-like and 

 practical character of Englishmen if we did not take steps to profit 

 by our past error, and to prevent our having to buy our experience 

 over again at the same heavy cost. With this view the Council have 

 within the last few days sought an interview with Her Majesty's 

 Government, and stated our unanimous conviction that so far as the 

 present attack of rinderpest is concerned, it would be highly impolitic 

 to relax the restrictions which have proved so effective until a suffi- 

 cient time shall have elapsed without the occurrence of a single case 

 to afford a reasonable probability that the disease is extinct in Great 

 Britain. With reference to the future, we also pointed out the im- 

 portance of obtaining from Parliament, in a permanent form, the 

 power to revive at any time when required the existing machinery. 

 That this machinery is efficient for its purpose is proved by the fact 

 that in any of the later outbreaks the disease has rarely extended 

 beyond the farms where it fii'st appeared, unless from great apathy 

 and negligence on the part of the local authorities. If the provisions 

 of the Cattle Diseases Prevention Act are not renewed they will 

 expire next June, or at the end of the then session of Parliament, and 

 on any new outbreak of the disease Parliament would have to be 

 called together, or, if then sitting, the tedious process of passing a 

 Bill through both Houses would have to be incurred before any 

 effective measures could be taken, and we should assuredly have again 

 to pay dearly for our want of foresight. The third point, which the 

 Council consider of equal, if not greater importance, than either of 

 the two former, is that the importation of foreign cattle should be 

 permanently placed on a safe footing. The whole character of this 

 trade has been changed by the continued extension of railways on the 

 continent of Europe, occurring as it has done simultaneously with 

 a great increase in the price of cattle in the English markets. These 

 two causes combined make it answer to the importer to bring cattle 

 from much greater distances, and we can no longer consider Rotterdam 

 and Hamburgh as the ports from which only Dutch or North German 

 stock are brought here, but they have become the termini of a great 



