1006 



FOOT-AND-MOI'TH DISEASE. 



[Feb., 



factor repeated itself in a number of outbreaks, or whether any 

 lines of evidence from a series of initial outbreaks would con- 

 verge on one point, for example, on a cargo or consignment of 

 feeding stuffs, &c. It may be said at once that it has not been 

 possible to establish anything of the kind. It is true grave sus- 

 picion has sometimes rested on a certain article, mainly on 

 account of its advent synchronising with the appearance of 

 disease on the premises, but in almost every case further inquiry 

 has shown that the same consignment has been distributed to 

 many other premises where no disease has occurred. It is also 

 correct that an occasional outbreak arose near camps in which 

 soldiers from the Continent had been concentrated. On the 

 other hand no actual communication was established between 

 the soldiers and the premises which became infected. More- 

 over, initial outbreaks had been known to occur in the past in 

 the same locality when there were no soldiers or other persons 

 to suspect, and in the vast majority of cases no outbreaks arose 

 near camps of the kind. 



The most that can be said of the above evidence is that it is 

 not in favour of the view that infection is generally brought to 

 this country by men and such articles as have been mentioned, 

 but in addition there is the fact that many initial outbreaks have 

 occurred on premises far removed from others, the animals of 

 which having received only foodstuffs grown on the place , and 

 the attendants not having been off the place for weeks before 

 disease appeared. The weightiest evidence, however, against 

 men, foodstuffs. &c. being responsible for the importation of 

 initial infection has arisen in the last year or so, during which 

 the invasions have been exceptionally frequent. It will be shown 

 later that invasions have repeated themselves during the last 

 20 years in more or less denned areas of the country, though not 

 on the same premises, large parts of England and Wales, and the 

 whole of Scotland and Ireland having escaped entirely or almost 

 so (there has been one initial outbreak in Scotland, at Edinburgh, 

 in the last 20 years). These immune areas receive the same 

 class of foodstuffs. &c and are visited by the same class of 

 human beings, and it is almost inconceivable that over a period 

 of 20 years certain areas could receive all the infected persons 

 and things which came into the country, and others escape 

 entirely, if persons and foodstuffs are generally responsible for 

 the importation of infection. This is all the more remarkable 

 when it is remembered that in over 80 per cent, of the outbreaks 

 of anthrax, infection is conclusively shown to arise from imported 



