CONTAGIOUS DISEASE 201 



the curiosity of the cattle, and those which were affected were cured, 

 and remained ever after immune from the disease. The angel left 

 written directions that the fire was to be handed on from farm to farm, 

 and the cattle passed through the smoke and all would be weU, but 

 in the event of it going out it was to be rekindled by means of rubbing 

 two pieces of wood together which had never been in a house, all the 

 fires in the houses being extinguished during the time the kindling 

 took place. The last " Need Fire " was set going at Killington, near 

 Kendal in 1840, and was passed through all the county to as far as 

 Skirwith in Cumberland. Wm. Pearson described it in Crosthwaite ; it 

 had been at Crook and Levens a day or so previous. " The ' smoke ' 

 was in the narrow Kirk Lane on Sunday the 15th of November, 1840 ; 

 the fire was composed of damp litter and green wood in order to produce 

 the greatest amount of smoke, and the cattle were driven close to the 

 fire and sometimes driven through it." It was handed on from farm 

 to farm and arrived at Howgill at midnight, yet " most of the 

 farmers cheerfully complied and as cheerfully forwarded the fire to 

 their neighbours. A few, whose idleness outbalanced their superstition, 

 remained in bed." 



Pleuro-pneumonia broke out in 1842, and Westmorland suffered 

 to a considerable extent, but there are no records as to numbers of 

 outbreaks till 1870. In 1866 cattle-plague raged throughout the 

 country, yet not a single case occurred in the county, though the 

 farmers suffered with others through the closing of all markets and fairs. 



A second outbreak of foot and mouth occurred in 1845 ; third, 

 1849-52 ; fourth, 1861-63 ; fifth, 1865-72, concurrently with cattle- 

 plague. 1860-65, pleiuro-pneumonia was very bad, and carried off 

 many valuable animals. 



These contagious diseases were very effectively dealt with by the 

 stamping out process known as the Cumberland system under John 

 Dunn, the late chief constable of the county ; he reported to Quarter 

 Session in 1883 that according to official records the loss caused by foot 

 and mouth disease in the two counties, Cumberland and Westmorland, 

 during the seven years prior to the introduction of the Cumberland 

 system had amounted to £30,000, but that during the six years it had 

 been in force seven outbreaks had occurred and had not spread beyond 

 the farms on which they broke out. The following are the official 

 returns relating to the scheduled contagious diseases in Westmorland : — 



