240 
Report on the Trade in Animals. 
be under such regulations as are calculated to prevent their 
becoming a vehicle for the conveyance of contagion. 
V. — Conclusion. 
During the progress of the investigation, the results of which 
have been described in the preceding pages, I was careful to 
note the bearing of the facts upon the suggestions which the 
Society might make to the Government, with a view to the 
improvement of the existing regulations, by rendering them 
Letter calculated to prevent the spread of disease. It requires 
considerable care, however, to avoid a judgment biassed unduly 
in favour of any one intei-est to the injury of the remainder. 
For instance, the proposal to subject all animals imported from 
Ireland to a quarantine of ten days would, no doubt, if properly 
carried out, give farmers who buy Irish store cattle a great amount 
of. security against the purchase of disease. But the importations 
from Ireland average considerably more than 1000 beasts per diem, 
divided for the most part between four or five ports ; and at each 
port accommodation would be required for ten days' importation 
(say between 2000 and 3000 beasts, besides sheep and pigs). To 
serve the purpose of the quarantine, each day's importation 
would have to be absolutely separated from every other day's 
importation, and the pen for each animal would have to be 
capable of complete isolation fro.m that of every other. The 
practical difficulty and expense of providing the necessary 
accommodation would, therefore, be enormous, the whole falling 
upon the farmer in the first instance, but ultimately taking the 
shape of a tax upon the consumer. 
It is not my intention to discuss further this or any other 
proposed remedy. The mere statement of the one quoted is 
sufficient to illustrate the difficulty of having due regard to the 
claims of conflicting interests, viz., the British and the foreign 
producers, the dealers, and the consumers. Solutions on the 
principle of cutting the Gordian knot are, in my view, altogether 
inadmissible ; and I, therefore, carefully studied the question of 
inspection with a view to test its efficacy, when conducted under 
proper regulations. The conclusion at which I arrived was that 
inspection at the ports of both the exporting and the importing 
country, as at Rotterdam and Harwich, with proper control of 
the persons engaged in the trade, proper supervision of their 
premises, proper inspection of the steamboats, cattle-trucks, and 
receiving-yards, and due regard to the most elementary prin- 
ciples of hygiene, would go a very long way towards bringing 
the danger of importing foot-and-mouth disease under control. 
