Report on the Trade in Animals. 
223 
pleuro-pneumonia, and 9 sheep with sheep-scab. The importa- 
tions from the Netherlands last year amounted to 58,286 cattle, 
239,734 sheep, and 9871 pigs, so that rather more than 3 cattle in 
every thousand, or 8 animals in every ten thousand of the total 
imports, were on inspection in England found affected with foot- 
and-mouth disease. These facts seem to prove that, if proper 
care is exercised in the inspection of animals, previous to 
shipment and after landing, the risk of importing a disease 
like foot-and-mouth, is reduced to very small proportions. 
Foreign Ports — Hambwff. — The shipping-stage for cattle at 
this port is provided with the best covered lair that I have seen, 
with the exception, perhaps, of the London and North-Western 
Company's yard at Dublin. It is entirely covered by a double-span 
roof; and cattle intended for shipment are said to be examined 
here by the Government inspector. Unfortunately, the returns 
of cattle found affected with contagious or infectious disease on 
their landing in England show that the inspection at Hamburg 
and other German ports is not so efficient as it might be. This 
laxity is to some extent explained by the fact that so long as a 
country is scheduled by the English Government there is less 
care devoted to the detection of disease in the exporting country 
than there otherwise might be, because it is felt that the animals 
will be slaughtered at the port of landing in any case, and that 
nothing worse can happen to them under any circumstances. 
So long as countries are scheduled or unscheduled simply on 
account of the possible danger of cattle-plague, this kind of 
inattention to the detection of foot-and-mouth disease must be 
expected to continue ; but if, over and above the precautions now 
taken with reference to cattle-plague and sheep- pox, it were 
insisted upon by the English Government that efficient inspection 
with reference to pleuro-pneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, and 
sheep-scab, should be an indispensable condition to free entry of 
live stock imported from foreign countries, a great improve- 
ment would doubtless ensue. We might then, for instance, in 
a short time import Spanish and Portuguese cattle free from 
foot-and-mouth disease, whereas, in 1871, so large a proportion 
of cattle affected with it arrived from those countries, that they 
ought to have been scheduled in consequence. 
The Hamburg cattle-market is situated outside the limits of 
the town, and is arranged on the same plan as the Dublin and 
Liverpool markets ; but the offices are more conveniently placed, 
and each is marked with the name of the dealer who rents it. In 
the neighbourhood of the market are extensive ranges of cattle- 
sheds belonging to the dealers, and used by them for housing 
their stock before sending them to the shipping-stage, or to 
the market, as the case may be. At the time when I was in 
