140 
Foot-arid-Mouth Disease. 
and removed with the certificate of a veterinary inspector. A 
store animal might have contracted the affection when the vessel 
touched at a French or Dutch port, and on arriving in this 
country may have been released without suspicion, and possibly 
have found its way into the Smithfield market. Other explana- 
tions have been offered, such as the illegal importation of cattle, 
communication of infection by means of foreign hides, or by the 
clothes of persons who had been in contact with diseased foreign 
animals ; but these suggestions are not so satisfactory as the 
one which refers the disease to the removal of a diseased or 
infected pig or cow from a homeward vessel. 
Fairly stated, the evidence of the introduction of the disease 
from the Continent is vague, and the result arrived at is not 
capable of proof ; but must rather be taken as an induction than 
as a conclusion. The facts are briefly these : — In 1839 foot- 
and-mouth disease prevailed in Germany, Holland, and France. 
In the same year it reached England, Ireland, and Scotland ; 
countries which had previously been free from the disease, or at 
least had not suffered from it, or any disease resembling it, for a 
century. The fact that this immunity was enjoyed, notwith- 
standing the prevalence of the disease in various parts of Europe, 
at different times, is worthy of remark. No prohibition against 
the importation of foreign cattle existed before 1833, and it is a 
matter of history that foreign animals were imported up to that 
time, not probably in large number, but presumably to a far 
greater extent than during the years when importation was 
altogether forbidden. 
After a few months of prevalence, foot-and-mouth disease 
became so widely spread, that the Royal Agricultural Society 
ordered an investigation into the origin of the disease and the 
best means of dealing with it. 
Professor Sewell was the veterinary adviser of the Society at 
that time, and, under his direction, a circular was issued on 
April 8th, 1840, in which the disease is thus described : — • 
In some animals it commences between the claws, and in others it 
appears to have begun in the mouth ; in others a stiffness of the legs is first 
perceived, as if treading upon thorns and briars ; then follows a discharge of 
saliva from the mouth, and a champing of the lips, accompanied with blisters 
on the tongue, palate, and lips ; the blisters peel off ; loss of appetite and 
general debility ensue. 
After this account of the symptoms of the disease, written in 
terms which might be properly employed now without varia- 
tion, certain directions are given as to treatment of the diseased 
animals. 
Great stress is laid on good nursing ; mild laxatives followed 
by tonics are recommended, with astringent lotion for the mouth; 
