Mediate Contagion. 31 



definitely enhanced and prolonged, and tlie hope of any 

 future riddance of the pestilence is rendered extremely 

 problematical. 



G. Contagion through Pasture or Fodder. — ^An instance 

 which came under the author's observation in East 

 Lothian, Scotland, in the years from 1856 to 1862 was 

 nearly allied to the above. On the Beil estate the deer- 

 park was not fully stocked with game, and the right of 

 pasturage for a certain number of cattle was let yearly. 

 Prior to the date mentioned cattle affected with the 

 plague had been placed in this field, and after this the 

 affection developed year after year in the herds there 

 turned out. That the infection came from the field was 

 unquestionable, as the stock turned out on the deer-park 

 were often from farms near by, where they had been kept 

 all winter and where there had not been a trace of the 

 disease for years. As the park was vacated by all but 

 the deer and sheep for four or five months of the year, it 

 is hardly credible that the contagium survived in the soil 

 for that length of time through all the changes of a Brit- 

 ish winter, and it seems more reasonable to conclude that 

 it had been covered up under great accumulations of 

 dried leaves, or in hay stored for the use of the 

 animals. 



In conclusion it is well to add that this denial of medi- 

 ate caidagion is sustained by but very few living veterinari- 

 ans, who cling to this as others still obstinately claim the 

 absence of all contagion whatever, direct or indirect. 

 But the best authorities, including Delafond, Bouley 

 Eeynal, Gerlach, Roloff, Eychner, E611, Lafosse, Flem 

 ing, etc., etc., advance the doctrine of mediate conta- 

 gion as amply proved and indisputable. Eychner says, 

 " The affection breeds a disease-germ — a contagion of a 

 volatile nature. That it attacks the cow that stands in 

 an uncleansed, infected stable, the many proofs of its con- 

 veyance through men, and through horses that have 



