Foot-aiid-Moutli Disease. 
475 
no one questions the possibility of eradicating them bj the em- 
ployment of certain severe measures which have never been 
known to fail when fairly applied ; no one contemplates without 
alarm the idea of those affections becoming naturalised in this 
country ; and therefore it is that all minor differences of opinion 
are merged in the common determination to get rid of the 
unwelcome visitants at all costs. Nothing short of a firm 
conviction of the danger Avhich is impending would suffice for 
the carrying out of the regulations which were applied to the 
malignant diseases cattle-plague and sheep-pox. That similar 
apprehensions are not generally felt in regard to foot-and- 
mouth disease, is evident enough ; and in their absence the only 
means which have proved effectual in controlling the spread of 
the affection will never be adopted. 
In the opinion of many agriculturists, something less stringent 
than the cattle-plague regulations would be sufficient to rid 
us of foot-and-mouth complaint and pleuro-pneumonia ; at 
best, however, it can only be said that the idea is unsupported 
by evidence — ten years application of the cattle-plague restric- 
tions over the whole country did not entirely exterminate 
either disease. Certainly, pleuro-pneumonia existed in the 
London dairies during the whole time, and in several in- 
stances cattle-plague and lung-disease were combined in the 
same animal. Foot-and-mouth disease subsided to such propor- 
tions that it attracted no attention, and although cases of the dis- 
ease were spoken of in diffierent parts of the country, they were 
not thought worthy of special notice. The statement which has 
been so often made, that if any instances of foot-and-mouth dis- 
ease had existed at the time immediately preceding the removal 
of the cattle-plague restrictions, they would have been recorded, 
is mere assumption. In the worst periods of its prevalence 
foot-and-mouth disease is barely noticed in veterinary and agri- 
cultural periodicals ; and during the existence of cattle-plague 
it excited even less attention than usual ; indeed, the affection 
was not often referred to, unless in illustration of the effect on 
its progress which the establishment of cattle-plague restrictions 
had produced. That the results of these restrictive regula- 
tions have been very much over-estimated, recent inquiry has 
convinced me. 
Writing on the subject of foot-and-mouth disease in 1869, 
I alluded to the decrease of the affection under the cattle-plague 
regulations in these terms : — 
' From this time, 1863, it gradually declined until 1865, when it recurred 
in a very severe form immediately upon the outbreak of cattle-plague, not 
tinfrequcntly attacking the animals which were at the time suffering from 
that disease. Many of the cases of eczema which were examined in the 
