234 



The Cattle-Plague. 



Down to 



October 28 



November 18 



„ -o 



December 9 



,, 1'3 



30 



6 



13 



20 



January 



February 



March 



9 

 17 

 2(5 



9 



Total Number 

 Attacked. 



17,673 



27,432 



33,983 



47,199 



53,886 



73,549 



82,057 



94,256 



107,098 



120,740 



132,183 



148,590 



166,379 



187,059 



Total Number Total Number 

 Died. Killed. 



7,912 



12,680 

 16,384 

 24,513 

 29,700 

 41,491 

 47,192 

 55,391 

 63,905 

 73,750 

 81,386 

 92,853 

 105,497 

 117,664 



6,866 

 8,998 

 10,061 

 11,554 

 12,380 

 13,931 

 8,268 

 10,008 

 11,831 

 14,162 

 17,368 

 18,247 

 19,227 

 26,135 



the Veterinary Department of tlie Privy Council. In hundreds 

 of instances the order to give notice of infection was evaded, and 

 cases occurred of which the inspectors were ignorant. Thousands 

 of animals were, and continued to be slaughtered to be out of the 

 way of attack. Wherever the pest has been announced the district 

 has been immediately cleared of its fat and three-parts fat stock, 

 which have been forced upon a clogged market to fetch what they 

 would. Similarly, as the distance has diminished between the dis- 

 eased and the healthy, the two-year-old cattle, the yearlings, and the 

 calves, have followed to the same bourne, and left the farmer to 

 wonder by what means the next year's crops of grass and roots 

 are to be consumed. This is a loss of which these Tables give 

 not the slightest indication, and I scarcely know, so far as the 

 intrinsic value of the cattle is concerned, which loss is the greatest, 

 that which appears and that which does not appear.* 



It forms no part of my intention, however, to deal either with 

 the history or the consequences that are likely to attend upon 

 this disease, but to confine myself to the disease itself and its 

 treatment, adding a few words about the local organisations for 

 defence and relief. This undertaking involves great difficulties : 

 the range of inquiry is necessarily extensive, the sources of in- 

 formation are perplexingly numerous — the lights cast from one 

 side and the other conflict and confuse — the ground is broken 

 and to a certain degree untrodden. When so little is known of 

 the object of inquiry, and so much remains to be ascertained, 

 anything like dogmatic assertion will be clearly out of place. I 



* Mr. Herbert estimates that by the end of January upwards of 6,000 store cattle 

 had been thus sacrificed in Lincolnshire alone (see p. 195): whereas the 16th 

 Eeturn of Cattle-Plague Enquiry (up to Feb. 17th) states the total number attacked 

 in that county to be 5,954. 



