Opinions on Epidemics and Epizootics. 289 



the disease of which, the one died was not the rinderpest, or 

 else that the rinderpest was not so infectious as it was repre- 

 sented. It is very important that we should "be able to form 

 an estimate of the number of curable animals that have died 

 of the Privy Council, and of the loss occasioned by stopping 

 cattle fairs, etc. Let us also study the other side of the 

 account, and try to find out what the so-called preventive mea- 

 sures have been really worth. That they cannot, under the most 

 favourable probabilities, be estimated as worth much, is ren- 

 dered probable by some Dutch statistics supplied by Mr. Caird, 

 according to which, out of 3319 animals attacked, 1169 died, 

 674 were slaughtered, 717 recovered, and the remainder were 

 under treatment. " In proportion/' he says, " to the whole 

 number of cattle in the country less than three in every thou- 

 sand have been attacked by the disease, and not two in a 

 thousand have perished/ - ' If our Privy Council and the 

 veterinary surgeons have prevented some cattle from being 

 infected, they have killed numbers which might, according to 

 Dutch experience, have been cured. On which side does the 

 balance lie ? 



Many people think that they solve the practical difficulty 

 of these cases by violently adopting measures called precau- 

 tions, on the plea that " it is best to be on the safe side." 

 There may not, however, be a " safe side," but simply a choice 

 of evils. The Government restriction mode of procedure in- 

 fallibly does much harm, and all that its best friends can 

 expect is to demonstrate that the harm thus done is more 

 than counterbalanced by the good achieved in arresting the 

 disease. We are yet without data from which we can compute 

 either the amount of mischief occasioned, or prevented by 

 Privy Council action. The former is certainly very great, and 

 unless the latter is greater, the balance will be on the wrong 

 side. At a meeting of the Sanatorium Committee of the 

 Corporation of London, which took place on the 13th of Octo- 

 ber, Mr. Game mentioned a case in which some cows were 

 condemned by the Government inspector, but as the slaughter - 

 mau could not come at the moment, medical means were 

 adopted and the animals cured instead of killed. Mr. Kudkin 

 mentioned another case in which thirty cows were condemned, 

 and after that twenty-four of them were cured. Mr. Caird 

 likewise tells that in Holland it is found that under a " rational 

 treatment " 25 per cent, of the cows afflicted with the rinder- 

 pest have recovered, and he adds, ie The most successful treat- 

 ment is said to have been by homoeopathy. This has been 

 practised by two Belgian practitioners, who volunteered their 

 services to the Dutch government. By them 50 per cent, of 

 the animals which had been sick had been cured, and out of 

 VOL. VIII. — NO. iv. u 



