442 
Foot-and-Mouth Disease. 
No increase of disease was noticed during the three succeeding 
years, and there is no evidence to show whether foot-and-mouth 
distemper was directly imported in 1845, or extended from the 
centres which then existed in this country. 
Again, the disease gradually declined. The duty on foreign 
stock was removed in March, 1846, and a great increase in the 
number of foreign animals imported immediately resulted, but 
no fresh outbreak of foot-and-mouth distemper occurred until 
1849, when it is reported to have prevailed extensively among 
cattle and sheep in Scotland, and by 1852 it had extended over 
the whole of the country, appearing in many isolated places. A 
gradual decline appears to have taken place until 1861, when the 
number of attacks again rose considerably. The records of the 
progress of the affection during this time, and indeed at all 
times, are very meagre, the disease being too trifling a matter, 
it would seem, to occasion much excitement. 
From 1861 the affection continued to prevail for several years. 
In 1862 it was detected among some Breton cattle in the Royal 
Agricultural Society's Showyard at Battersea, and it was un- 
doubtedly the case that the distribution of the animals all over 
the country, at the conclusion of the show, caused the disease to 
be widely spread. Shortly after the Battersea exhibition of 
stock, foot-and-mouth disease existed in a malignant form 
among cattle and sheep at Harrow ; but, in this case, there is 
reason to believe that the disease was associated with blood 
poison, owing to the contamination of the land with sewage 
matter which was retained by the tenacious soil. 
In 1863 an outbreak of foot-and-mouth complaint occurred 
among the cattle at the show of fat stock of the Smithfield Club. 
During that and the following year, however, the disease de- 
clined. 
The first attempt to control the spread of foot-and-mouth 
disease by legislation was made in 1864, when a Bill was 
introduced by Mr. Bruce and Sir George Grey on February 
19 to make further provision for the prevention of infectious 
diseases among cattle. Foot-and-mouth disease was included in 
the schedule as an infectious disease, but the opposition to the 
introduction of any restrictive measure in relation to that 
disease was so decided on the part of leading agriculturists and 
persons connected with the cattle trade, that it was struck out of 
the Bill as amended in Committee. The general allegations were 
that the proposed restrictions would hamper trade, and would not 
effectually get rid of the disease, while the loss which would he 
occasioned would be more serious than that inflicted by the 
malady when allowed to run unchecked. 
In the spring of 1865 foot-and-mouth disease was again es- 
