45 6 History of Animal Plagues. 



as the other failings of a police so difficult to enforce in human 

 society, are all causes which may aid the contagion in insinuat- 

 ing itself into some village or on some mountain. In this un- 

 fortunate case^ it only rests with us to smother the flame in its 

 first commencement, and to prevent its extension. Every per- 

 son who may have any knowledge of the disease, or even any 

 suspicion of its existence among cattle, should be held liable to a 

 heavy penalty if the nearest magistrate is not at once informed ; 

 also when a non-suspected beast becomes diseased or dies, the 

 proprietor or other instructed persons should give information, 

 and the proper authorities should then pass on the tidings. 

 Whoever conceals any suspected case should be severely pun- 

 ished. Every precaution should then be made to extinguish the 

 disease. 



lo. 



'The first of these precautions is the prompt separation 

 of the diseased beast. So long as it is suspected it ought 

 neither to be allowed to drink, feed, pasture, or dwell with the 

 healthy. It should be kept in a separate stable, or in an en- 

 closed paddock, and those who attend it should wear clothes 

 appropriate for that purpose — never even approaching healthy 

 animals. The trough out of which this animal drinks ought not 

 to be used for the healthy, the dung should not be spread on the 

 ground or carried away, but shoidd be buried in deep pits and 

 well covered with earth, and these places should be surrounded 

 by palings, so that no healthy beast may be able to smell it. 



' When the infected animal has been killed, or when it has died, 

 it is necessary to aerate the stable for three months at least, and 

 remove and burn the thatch and all the wooden moveable articles; 

 to dig up the ground to the depth of a foot, and replace it with 

 other earth, and cover the whole with lime. The healthy should 

 not go near the forage which the diseased may have been eating, 

 and which might be infected by its breath, — though it may be 

 given to horses. Every animal dying of the disease should be 

 opened in the presence of proper persons skilled in the veterinary 

 art, and a report of the post-mortem appearance should be made. 

 If the disease is made out to be a non-contagious one, the owner 



