500 
Report on the Contagious and 
imperfectly represented the loss which the owner would sustain, inasmuch as 
it would be impossible for him to obtain fresh stock immediately, and his 
pastures would be useless, or, it might be, his trade as a dairyman would be 
interrupted for a considerable time. The obvious retort, that these things 
would happen equally if the animals were allowed to live and become infected 
one after the other, and to die of disease or be slaughtered, evidently failed to 
cany conviction, and it may be stated that, with few excejitions, if the owners 
of infected herds had been allowed to act in consonance with their own wishes 
and opinions, the animals would have b'^en kept until the extension of the 
disease among them had made it evident that they had slight chance of 
escaping destniction. 
The two instances recorded in which animals that had been herded with 
diseased ones ultimately escaped the infection will, doubtless, be added to the 
evidence of a similar kind which was obtained during the former outbreak in 
1865-7, and tend to keep up the idea which exists among a small section of 
the public, that the stamping-out system is wasteful and unnecessary. 
The employment of remedies for the cure of cattle-plague has always been 
most strenuously advocated by persons who, from their position and ex- 
perience, must necessarily be entirely ignorant of the whole subject. The 
stamping-out system is the final resort of all who have carefully investigated 
the matter, and who have satisfied themselves by observation of the danger 
which results under ordinary circumstances from keeping animals infected with 
the disease alive in order to test the effect of medicinal appliances. Our own 
experience in 1865-7, the experience of Holland during the same outbreak, 
and the recent experience of France, combine to demonstrate the fact, notwith- 
standing the apparent success which has attended various kinds of treatment 
(often the most opposite), that the disease spreads invariably with a rapidity 
proportioned to the extent to which these experiments are carried on ; while, 
on the other hand, the experience of Prussia is altogether in favour of the 
system of slaughtering, not only the diseased animals, but those which have 
been either herded with them, or are placed within reach of infection. 
The outbreak of 1872 did not add anything to our previous experience in 
reference to the efficacy of the means which have always been found effectual 
in Prussia, but it strengthened the conclusion which had previously been 
arrived at in reference to the desirability of amending certain clauses of " The 
Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 18G9," so as to give to the authorities 
power to deal with the animals in the immediate neighbourhood of the centres 
of disease. 
On my arrival at Pocklington shortly after the outbreak among Mr. Berry- 
man's herd was discovered, I made inquiries which convinced me that there 
was every probability of the spreading of the affection through the medium of 
animals which were in the vicinity of Mr. Berryman's fields; and I have no 
doubt that, had the inspectfirs of the several districts where cattle-plague 
appeared been armed with the necessary authority to enable them to deal with 
all the instances in which th.e risk of infection had been incurred, the cattle- 
plague would have been extinguished almost as soon as its existence was 
discovered , 
Eespecting the means which should be adopted in any future outbreak of 
the malady I have nothing to suggest beyond the adoption of the Prussian 
system of isolation and slaughter in its entiretj'. Immediately on the dis- 
covery of an outbreak the diseased animals, and those herded with them, 
should be slaughtered and buried, and all animals in the meadows immediately 
contiguous to those in which the disease broke out should either be slaughtered 
or confined in such a position that they may be constantly under the super- 
vision of the veterinary inspectors. For some distance aiound the infected 
area it is very desirable that the large herds should, as far as possible, be 
