Report on the Trade in Animals. 
197 
ceded that tlic police perform these somewhat extraneous duties 
in a manner that is, on the whole, highly creditable to their 
intelligence and organisation ; and if a sufficient number of 
veterinary surgeons were attached to the constabulary as con- 
sulting inspectors,* if uniformity of action amongst the local 
authorities of rural districts were insisted upon by the central 
Government, and if certain alterations in the law (to be presently 
indicated) were also obtained, the effect upon the spread of foot- 
and-mouth disease would, doubtless, be very soon manifest to 
the agricultural public. 
The omission of foot-and-mouth disease from the provisions 
of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act relating to the dis- 
covery and prevention of disease appears to be one principal 
reason why that epizootic causes more loss of meat to the nation 
than all the rest put together. The preliminary sections under 
this part of the Act (Part IV.) are as follows : — 
" § 31. An Inspector of a Local Authority, on receiving infomiation of the 
supposed existence of cattle-plague, pleuio-pneumonia, or sheep-pox, or having 
reasonable ground to suspect that any of those diseases exists in any place 
within his district, shall proceed to that place with all practicable speed, and 
execute and discharge the powers and duties by or under this Act conferred 
and imposed on him as Inspector. 
" § '62. An Inspector or other officer of a Local Authority authorised to act 
in the execution of this Act may at any time enter any field, stable, cow- 
shed, or other premises within his district, where he has reasonable grounds 
for supposing that any animal affected with cattle-plague, pleuro-pneuuionia, 
or sheep-pox is to be found, for the purp)Ose of executing this Act, but shall, if 
required, state in writing the grounds on which he has so entered. 
" If any person refuses admission to such Inspector or officer acting under 
this Section, he shall be deemed guilty of an offence against this Act. 
" § 33. The certificate of an Inspector of a Local Authority, to the effect 
that an animal within his district is affected with cattle-plague, pleuro-pueu- 
monia, or sheep-pox, shall, for the purposes of this Act, be conclusive evidence 
in all Courts of Justice and elsewhere of the matter certified." 
The foregoing sections thus give to the inspector right of 
entry into premises, and liberty to inspect animals, in cases, or 
suspected cases, of cattle-plague, pleuro-pneumonia, and sheep- 
pox ; and in these diseases the inspector's certificate is conclusive 
evidence of the matter certified. But with regard to foot-and- 
mouth disease there are no such provisions ; on the contrary, the 
omission of the name of that disease from the foregoing section, 
probably amounts, by implication, to an enactment that the in- 
spector has no such rights in reference to it as he has with regard 
to the diseases that are the special subjects of those sections. 
* Unfortunately the tendency at present is, in some districts, to disallow the 
expenses of the Veterinary Inspector of the Local Authority, iucurreJ in attend- 
ing fau'S and markets. All provisions should be compulsory, otherwise they are 
uselcBs. 
