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ABSTRACT REPORT OF AORICULTURAL 

 DISCUSSIONS. 



Meeting of WeeJdij Ccnncil, Wcdnesdaij, Fehniary 21sf. The Duke of 

 Marlbokough in tlie cliair. A Lecture was delivered by Professor 

 SiMONDS on 



The Cattle-Plague. 



The Professor said that, in making some observations nj)on the 

 important subject of the cattle-i)lague, he shoukl endeavoui- to be 

 as brief as possible, and also to avoid as much as possible going into 

 the discussion of any debateable points. It was extremely difficiiit, 

 however, to handle a matter of this kind at the j)resent moment, more 

 especially when we reflect that the Society by its charter was bound 

 not to discuss any political matter or question that might be under 

 consideration in Parliament. For that reason he should endeavour to 

 avoid all allusion to what vv-as now taking place in either House upon 

 the subject. He proposed first to make some remarks upon the 

 disease as it had existed here in former times ; and then to come down 

 especially to the introduction of the disease on the present occasion, 

 the progress which it had made in this country, and the means which 

 had been adopted from time to time to arrest its progress — those 

 means being, of course, medical means, either curative or preventive. 



History of the Disease. 



It is not desirable to take up any considerable portion of time by 

 referring at length to the past history of this murrain, further than to 

 say that the first period assigned for its appearance in England was 

 the year 1665; that was about the time when the plague also existed 

 here : but it was an interesting fact in connection with that supposed 

 outbreak that the disease had a prior existence in Western Em-ope. 

 In the year 1714 a paper was presented to the Privy Council by 

 Dr. Bates, who held a medical aj^pointment to George II., and in that 

 paper was an allusion to this disease. Dr. Bates said : — 



" It is affirmed by several now living that- there was a mortality among the 

 cattle a little before the last great plague in the year 1665, which was imputed 

 to the want of due care in burying them ; and your lordships may know of 

 what importance it was judged by the King of Prussia, the States of Holland, 

 and several other princes and States, by the care they took to publish decrees 

 and placards commanding them to be buried upon pain of death or other 

 severe penalties ; and 1 hunibl}^ conceive it would be necessary not only to 

 bury those which shall die, but that such as are already dead may have the 

 same care, as also that they be buried 9 or 10 feet deep at least." 



These observations applied, of course, to the disease of 1714, which 

 Dr. Bates was then engaged in combatting ; and they contained quite 

 sufficient evidence to show that the disease existed in Western Europe 

 at about that time. There was also a fair probability that it existed 



