SECRETARY'S REPORT. 21 



them the Assembly unanimously included contagious pleuro- 

 pneumonia. 



Dr. Warneke, of Kiel, Holstein, says recently : "It becomes 

 every day more evident in this country, that the pulmonary 

 disease is not indigenous here ; that it has not developed itself 

 spontaneously here, but that it owes its presence entirely to 

 contagion arising from tlie importation of foreign cattle." 



Wagenfeld, a distinguished veterinarian, says : "In a paper 

 of mine vehich I published ten years ago, I expressed my 

 opinion positively against the view that the lung disease was 

 contagious. Now, after making numerous new observations 

 on the lung plague, and subjecting the same to an unbiased 

 critical examination, I find myself constrained to admit that 

 my earlier views were erroneous ; — the lung disease is very 

 contagious." 



Professor Spinola, of Berlin, had the same experience, and 

 changed his views entirely after long study and observation, 

 arriving at the conclusion that pleuro-pneumonia was a purely 

 and highly contagious disease. 



Professor Gerlach, Director of the Veterinary School in Han- 

 over, which I visited in July, a man of distinguished learning and 

 great practical experience,- after having made the contagious 

 diseases of cattle a special study, found " that a conscientious 

 investigation of any outbreak of pleuro-pneumonia does not fail 

 to determine in all cases, that healthy stock )ias been contami- 

 nated by diseased animals." 



Whatever difference of opinion on the point of contagion 

 there may have been in Eurojie, ten o'r even five years ago, it is 

 now very generally, if not universally, believed to be contagious 

 and dangerous by veterinary surgeons and all others capable of 

 forming a correct opinion upon it. 



Now let me allude to Prof. Gamgee once more. I like to 

 quote him, because I know him to be honest, competent and 

 trustworthy, while the high and responsible position he has 

 recently held, and I believe still holds, under the government, 

 entitles his opinion to be regarded as sound. " Ten years' 

 anxious study of these important questions," says he, " have 

 led me to form an opinion the very opposite of that which I was 

 first taught to entertain. I was led to believe that the destruc- 

 tive epizootics of the bovine tribe in this country were non-con- 



