616 PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 



pleuro-pneumonia is long. It is rare that during that period 

 infected animals communicate the disease. It is most com- 

 municable when fully developed. The poison is weak, and 

 often ineffectual until the advanced stages of the malady. 

 Early separation of diseased stock ensures the check, or total 

 arrest of the disease; and the great question is how to ac- 

 complish this. 



A country invaded like ours, or like Australia, by pleuro- 

 pneumonia, should enforce the infliction of severe penalties 

 on those knowingly selling diseased animals from their own 

 stock or that of others. The channels of importation should 

 be under most rigid inspection, and probably in some cases, 

 such as in our own country, quarantine would be indispens- 

 able. Stocks should be mixed as little as possible ; all past 

 purchases kept apart ; and where large droves of cattle, as in 

 Australia, have to be protected, a system of separating them 

 in lots as small as possible should be adopted. The moment 

 an animal might be observed unwell and inspection should 

 be very careful that animal should be slaughtered; and any 

 lot in which this may be noticed should be most rigidly ex- 

 amined, and separated into smaller lots, to be kept clear from 

 each other for a space of at least two months. Placing land 

 on which animals have been fed in quarantine for a twelve- 

 month, is a ridiculous and useless restriction; but this, we 

 understand, has been largely practised in Victoria. 



In this country, in many establishments we have consulted 

 for some time past, the disease has been cleared out at once 

 without selling out or killing an entire stock. If a farmer 

 suffers from pleuro-pneumonia long, it is owing to negligence 

 or ignorance of the fact that the disease is eminently con- 

 tagious. He should breed his own stock entirely if possible; 

 buy, if necessary, from indubitable sources, and watch against 

 the pasturing of animals near infected ones, or near high 



