Losses in England. bl 



616,854 (say $400,000,000). For the succeeding nine 

 years, up to 1878, the losses have been, in the main, aa 

 extensive, so that we may set them down as now reach- 

 ing at least $500,000,000 in deaths alone, without count- 

 ing all the contingent expenses, of deteriorated health, 

 loss of markets, progeny, crops, manure, etc., disinfec- 

 tion, quarantine, etc. With us no attempts have been 

 made to estimate the losses, but they cannot exceed an 

 inconsiderable fraction of those above named; and thus 

 we have slept on in a pleasant dream of immuuity. 



"It is even alleged that the disease has, in a great meas- 

 ure, been shorn of its virulent power, by being trans- 

 planted to the shores of the New World, and that we may 

 comfort ourselves with this and continue to ignore its 

 presence. If, on the other hand, it can be shown that 

 the difference is in no material respect affected by cli- 

 mate, but altogether determined by the surroundings, it 

 wiU be well for us to attend to the facts of the case, and 

 face the real danger. The lung fever, which had reaUy 

 entered England, by a special importation, some time be- 

 fore the free trade act of 1842, was, by virtue of this act, 

 thrown upon her in constantly accumulating accessions. 

 The ports at which the continental cattle were landed, 

 and the markets in which they were sold — London (Smith- 

 field Market), Southampton, Dover, Harwich, Hull, New- 

 castle, Edinburgh, etc. — insured the mingling of the im- 

 ported stock, week by week, with the native store cattle. 

 Then, if tliey failed to find a profitable sale, they were 

 sent by cars to other and inland markets, where they 

 were again and again brought into contact with numer- 

 ous herds of store cattle, by which the germs of the dis- 

 ease were taken in and carried all over the country. 



"With us, on the other hand, the disease was long con- 

 fined to the dairies of Brooklyn and New York, where- 

 the cows were kept until they died, or were fattened for 

 the butcher. A few, doubtless, found their way to the 

 country, and by these the disease was carried to different 

 farms, which were thus constituted centres of contagion 

 from which the adjacent country became infected. But 

 any such movemenb from the city dairies was necessarily 

 of the most restricted kind, and it never took place to 

 any great distance. It would have been folly tc move a 



