THE LUNG PLAGUE. 17 



deen sTiires. It lias been rarely, and in a few farms, in sncli counties as 

 Argyle, Banff, Inverness, and Caithness. 



The losses by pleuropneumonia have amounted during the past seven - 

 and-tweuty years to as high as two millions pounds sterling per annum, 

 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The best cattle 

 have been destroyed, inasmuch as the breeding cows and young stocks 

 in breeding districts beyond the range of infection never attain the value 

 of the fine milch cows and fattened steers which exist in milk-produc- 

 ing and fattening districts. I prepared a table of losses in 88 dairies in 

 the city of Edinburgh, from the 1st of July, 18G1 to the 1st of July, 18G2, 

 and out of 1,839 cows, 71)1 were sold diseased to butchers, and L*81 were 

 sold as food for pigs. The total value of the 1,075 diseased animals when 

 first bought, at the very moderate average of £13 10s. each, is £14,512 lO.s*. 

 There was realized by their sale, calculating the value of the 791 sold to 

 butchers at an average of £5 each, and the 281 sold for pig-feeding at 

 lO shillings each, the sum of £1,097. The net annual loss by diseased 

 cows in Edinburgh alone was therefore £10,115. Similar losses have 

 occurred in all other large cities, such as Dublin, London, Liverpool, New- 

 castle, &c. 



From England and Holland the disease has been propagated far and 

 wide. In 1817 English cattle communicated pleuro-pneumouia to Sweden, 

 and in 1818, it appears, from Sweden to Denmark. Mr. E. Fenger, a Dan- 

 ish veterinarian, furnished me in 18G2 with the following information : 

 " As to the appearance of this disease in the kingdom of Denmark, it is 

 an established fact that it has taken place only three times upon three 

 different farms where cattle had been introduced from abroad. No other 

 cattle were affected than those in the three herds alluded to, and for 

 three years no disease has appeared in Denmark. As to the spontaneous 

 origin of pleuropneumonia, I msh to draw your attention to the fact 

 that it is never seen in the town of Copenhagen, notwithstanding that 

 in this place large dairies are kept where the cows are fed on draff" from 

 distilleries, and are kept in a state contrary to any which sanitary 

 rules might suggest. In the dukedom of Schleswig the disease has been 

 imported several times, and last from England, and occasionally has 

 spread rather widely. This autumn the cattle of thirty different places 

 in Schleswig have been kept in a kind of quarantine. 



In 1858 an agricultural society in Oldenburgli puchased some Ayr- 

 shires to distribute among its members for breeding purposes. Wher- 

 ever these animals went they communicated disease. Oldenburgli has kept 

 very free from pleuropneumonia from the activity with which the infected 

 animals are destroyed at the outbreak of disease. The same remark 

 applies to Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Schleswig-IIolstein. With regard 

 to the latter province, it transpires that in 1859 some Ayrshire cattle im- 

 ported in the vicinity of Tondern communicated pleuropneumonia. 



In the month of August, 18G0, an agent of the Norwegian govern- 

 ment purchased a number of Ayrshire cattle; they were taken to the 

 2 



