344 History of Aniinal Plagues. 



as to render it easily practicable by the common owners of cattle, would 

 be rather injurious than benelicial in its efiects to the public. "What 

 constitutes the great object of care and attention at present is the ex- 

 cluding the contagion from our country by the immediate slaughter of 

 the beasts infected or exposed to the hazard of being so, and not the 

 attempt of cure.' Reason and the legislature both decree that measure j 

 and in order that what is ordained by authority respecting this slaughter, 



^ As the means which ought to be pursued for the national security, according 

 to the present circumstances, in case the murrain should break out anywhere with 

 us again, are the killing immediately the cattle infected, and the preventing the 

 removal of those exposed to be so, or of anything that can convey the contagion, 

 the publishing at present directions for the cure of the cattle in so explicit and 

 familiar a manner as might be easily put in practice by the common owners of 

 them, would probably have mjurious consequences to the public, as it might pro- 

 duce motives to neglect destroying the beasts under the hope of saving them by 

 cure. It is, therefore, more proper while the disease is confined to one spot only, 

 or to a few with narrow limits, to furnish every assistance to the quick and certain 

 discovery of the disease if it should be brought over to us, in order to suppress it 

 instantly by those means which are ordained by law, than to encourage any en- 

 deavours to save such beasts as are infested with it. If after these means of extir- 

 pating the contagion have been duly tried, they should be found to have failed of 

 success, so that the infection has been spread over a large extent or diffused into a 

 great number of places, as happened in the former invasion of our country by It, 

 the case would be quite altered, and the supplying then as extensively as possible 

 the best means of saving the cattle by medicinal aid, would be a great benefit to 

 the public, because the destroying them under those circumstances would be very 

 detrimental instead of advantageous, as it could not possibly produce the intended 

 effect, but would co-operate with the disease itself in causing a scarcity of cattle. 

 The continuance of the orders for destroying the cattle after the murrain was ex- 

 tensively spread over the country had a very apparent bad effect the last time it 

 raged here. The visible constant decrease of the cattle as well from the number 

 slaughtered as from those which died of the distemper, the great room which it was 

 found the bounty offered at large gave for impositions and frauds, and the heavy 

 expense on the public in providing for the bounty, afforded therefore the strongest 

 reasons for retracting the orders for killing the cattle. This instance, as well as 

 obvious deductions from the subject itself, evinces it is only when the murrain first 

 breaks out, and the infection is confined to narrow boimds, that the means and 

 regulations at present provisionally ordained by Act of Parliament can possibly 

 avail and be proper. For afterwards the killing those beasts which might other- 

 wise recover would be a palpable loss, not only of so many cattle, but of those that, 

 as we have seen before, are, from their future security against the infection, of far 

 greater value than others, and the restrictions with regard to the driving and remov- 

 ing the cattle, the proliibitions of fairs and markets for the sale of them, &c., would 

 cause such a defect in the supply of the capital city as would be attended with very 

 embarrassing and distressful circumstances. There is another reason why I have 

 deferred giving a formal description for the medicinal treatment of the cattle. It is 

 that though I am convinced from trial and observation the practice recommended 

 is good in a general view, and I could point rules for the conducting the particulars 



