Report on the Trade in Animals, 
215 
was held on the following^ Monday, in the ordinary cattle- 
market. The market-place is a large square, surrounded by a 
stone wall, well paved with stone, and divided into sections by 
low walls, also of stone. It is furnished with a good-sized 
circular drinking-trough, and is from end to end almost better 
kept than any other market-place I have yet seen, in the United 
Kingdom or on the Continent. The walls are frequently white- 
washed, and, after the manure is removed, the paving is plenti- 
fully bestrewn with lime. Tlie cattle in the fair were exclu- 
sively Irish, with the exception of one lot. They were carefully 
examined, as also were the sheep, by the veterinary inspector of 
the local authority ; but it was evidently too much work for 
one man to do properly within the available time. It occurred 
to me that much good would result if the distinction between 
Government inspector and local inspector were abolished, and 
if either the local or the central authority appointed a chief 
inspector and a subordinate, the Government paying the whole 
or part of the salary of the former, on condition that he was to 
be held responsible for the proper discharge of the duties now 
performed by the Government inspector. In this manner two 
veterinary surgeons, instead of one, would be available for the 
examination of stock in the fair, or on the weekly market, and 
there would be little, if any, additional expense either to the local 
authority or the Government. 
The inspector of the local authority at Bristol assured me that 
he had not seen a case of foot-and-mouth disease in the market for 
more than two months previous to the fair, and there were none 
to be detected in the fair. I took the names and addresses of 
six gentlemen who bought stock at the fair, as a sort of check to 
this statement ; but in no case was it clear to me that their 
purchases took the disease to the farms to which they went. 
The only inference that could be drawn from so slight an expe- 
rience was that stock bought at Bristol Market are not so uni- 
formly diseased as has been asserted. 
There can, however, be little doubt that Bristol is the great 
centre of infection in the West of England ; and, if the market 
is blameless, some other portion of the arrangements must be 
defective. I therefore carefully traced some beasts from an Irish 
steamboat to the market, with a view of ascertaining what 
became of them in the interval, and of judging whether the 
secret was hidden in the place of their retirement. I thus found 
that, after the cattle had been landed and watered, they were 
driven to certain fields conveniently situated near the boundary 
of the city jurisdiction, some being within that boundary and 
some outside it. These fields are rented by cattle-sales- 
men, and they are used as a temporary refuge for stock which 
