APPENDIX. 341 



here. He admitted there were difficulties in the way 

 of checking the importation of foreign cattle. The 

 Government had its eyes open to the matter, and he 

 did not think it possible for the Government to have 

 done more than they had done or to have done more 

 quickly what they had been doing. At this moment 

 half the supply of the metropolitan market came from 

 foreign countries, and he did not wish to convey any 

 reflection by saying that this disease had its origin 

 from abroad. He would admit that the animals from, 

 Germany and Hungary were coming in a healthy con- 

 dition ; but he could not admit that they came from 

 Russia, Poland, or Galicia in so perfect a condition, 

 because the regulations there were not sufficient to 

 stamp out the disease. The Government had made 

 an inquiry as to the general health of cattle on the 

 Continent. They believed France, Belgium, Holland, 

 Schleswig-Holstein, Oldenburg, and a large part of the 

 Continent that supplied cattle to this country were free 

 from disease. This went to show that we had admitted 

 a disease not from where we received our supplies of 

 meat, but from some other district. Then it must be 

 associated with the fact that it came into this country 

 when animals arrived here from an infected district in 

 Russia. Animals from Germany and Hungary were 

 often shipped and mixed with others from a diseased 

 district. As regarded the disease being spontaneous, 

 we had been free from it for twenty years. What was 

 the state of our cowsheds fifty years ago ? Were they 

 not in a more filthy condition than they are now? If, 

 therefore, the disease had been induced from common 

 causes it would have been here years and years ago. 



