TEEATMENT. 89 



As science cannot accept the rude instruments with which 

 fear always urges ignorance to arm itself, so the common 

 sense of practical men soon revolts from their long continued 

 employment. 



The proprietors and tenant farmers of Kincardineshire, by 

 memorial addressed in February, 1866, to the Privy Council, 

 stated that until a then recent period, they were of opinion 

 with a great majority of her Majesty's subjects — 



"That stamping out by slaughtering all diseased animals, and those 

 in immediate contact with them, was the only remedy ; but that within 

 the last few weeks a great change had taken place in your memorial- 

 ists' opinions regarding this matter, in consequence of the successful 

 treatment of the Plague in the parishes with which your memorialists 

 are connected &c." 



After stating that on certain farms eighty cattle had been 

 cured and only one died, and their belief that by pursuing 

 such treatment, ninety per cent at least might be safely 

 brought through the dreadful Plague ; they besought the 

 Honorable Council to act under a proviso for such purpose, 

 expressed in the Cattle Plague Act of 29 Vict., Chap. 2, and 

 to exempt from its operation (i. e., the slaughter of infected 

 animals) for a 'period of two weeks, all cattle coming under 

 the immediate care of the Inspector whose treatment of the 

 disease had been so successful ; to the end that if the experi- 

 mental trial thus to be sanctioned should have a successful 

 result, a like measure of relief might be extended to other 

 districts. Strange to say, the Council refused to give a 

 beneficent and liberal interpretation to the clause referred to, 

 fell back upon the alleged original understanding of its pur- 

 port by both Houses of Parliament ; confined its interpreta- 

 tion to experimental cases under the direct charge of the 

 Cattle Plague Commissioners, and refused the prayer of the 

 memorialists. We pause a moment to remind the reader 

 that more benign and less ambiguous provisions mark the 

 enactments of law adopted by the State of l^ew York on the 

 recommendation of its Agricultural Society. 



The "stamping out" process it is conceded, may effect the 

 end it proposes within certain limits, provided these are suffi- 

 12 



