STATE HYGIENE 495 



non-infected countries, owing to the cattle-men taking back 

 to America with them head-ropes which had got infected in 

 Deptford Market from European cattle, and so infecting 

 on the high seas the previously healthy stock from another 

 Continent. 



This example is given on the authority of the Chief 

 Veterinary Officer of the Board of Agriculture,* and is 

 quoted as an excellent object-lesson of the point we are 

 now insisting upon, that the best preventive measures 

 may be defeated by want of attention to detail, and the 

 failure to close up every possible leak. 



In dealing with Cattle Plague in any of the British 

 possessions the same principles are adopted, though the 

 precise details may differ. A very much larger area of the 

 country may be declared infected, but this extra safeguard 

 is neutralized by the fact that it may be less possible or 

 more difficult to form an inner and outer zone of infection. 

 Further, the destruction of all affected and in-contacts may 

 not be possible owing to local conditions, and, again, the 

 early destruction of the affected may not be desirable, as 

 from them material is required for the protective inocula- 

 tion of the apparently healthy. 



Group System. — In these cases, therefore, the group 

 system is adopted. The animals are classed according to 

 whether apparently healthy, suspicious, or affected ; they 

 are drafted from one group to the other as cases manifest 

 themselves, and as far as possible at once dealt with by 

 protective inoculation. 



The farm on which the cases have occurred should be 

 rigidly isolated, no one allowed to leave it, and all sur- 

 rounding farms must be dealt with by inoculation, so as to 

 place a protected zone around the area of infection ; all 

 movements of cattle in this protected zone must cease. 



The attendants on the sick should be confined to these 

 duties and no other ; hands, feet, boots, clothes, must be 

 daily subjected to the process of disinfection, for which 



* Annual Eeport of Chief Veterinary Officer, Board of Agriculture, 

 1901. 



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