The Cattle Plague and Scientific Investigation. 131 



successful in stopping the spread of yellow fever, and yet the 

 evidence published by the Board of Health in the second of the 

 Keports* to which we have alluded, tells precisely in the oppo- 

 site way. " During the late epidemic of British Guiana/' says 

 Dr. Blair, "the yellow fever cases in their worst forms were never 

 separated from other patients in our hospital wards. Such a 

 thing was not deemed necessary, and was never thought of 

 .... Our hospital nurses never got infected, although in the 

 closest connection with the sick, and often smeared with their 

 ejections .... The resident surgeons, dispensers, and stewards 

 were all susceptible subjects, and with one exception escaped 

 without attack." 



It by no means follows that because this sort of evidence 

 might be multiplied to any extent with reference to cholera, 

 yellow fever, and certain other disorders, a similar investigation 

 would terminate in the same way if the cattle plague were the 

 subject of scientific inquiry, and as our purpose is to enforce a 

 scientific method of investigation, we do not wish such infor- 

 mation to go for more than it is worth. The cattle plague may 

 possess powers of contagion greater than any known disorder, 

 but plenty of other disorders have been spoken of in the same 

 terms, and we do not recollect a single case in which the 

 alarm of contagion has not been diminished when an epidemic 

 has been studied in a scientific way. 



This tendency of inquiry to reduce fear is exemplified in 

 the course of opinion on the cattle plague. At first the ultra- 

 con tagioni'sts seemed to have it all their own way, though 

 some cautious authorities like Professor Yarnell immediately 

 pointed out the probability of their mistake. At the time we 

 write Professor Dick of Edinburgh has expressed similar 

 views, and several letters from agriculturists tend to diminish 

 alarm. Important practical opinions on the question are also 

 given by a cow and a calf at the Poyal Veterinary College, who 

 for a month past have not availed themselves of their alleged 

 opportunities of catching the disease^ which has carried off seven 

 or eight of their companions in the very next sheds. 



The want of air, light, and ventilation in many, perhaps 

 we might say, most cattle sheds and dairies, supplies condi- 

 tions remarkably favourable to the generation and spread of 

 disease, and the wonder is that loss from such causes is not 

 greater than we are accustomed to, and to these constant sources 

 of danger we may add the prevalence of hot, moist weather, 

 which has exerted a depressing influence upon men and animals. 

 The materials for forming opinion exist in unhappy abun- 

 dance with reference to the cattle plague ; but the public are 

 not in possession of an adequate number of verified cases to 



* 1852. 



