2 Foot-and- Mouth Disease : its History and Teachings. 
various diseases to which the animals of the farm are liable, the 
WTiters made no mention of foot-and-mouth, or anv disease akin 
to it. Thus, in Pearson's ' Horse, Cattle, and Sheep Doctor,' 
published in 1811, sixty diseases of cattle and sheep are de- 
scribed, but there is not a word upon foot-and-mouth. In the 
earlier editions of Clater's ' Cattle Doctor,' no mention whatever 
is made of the disease ; but in 1853, when the tenth edition 
was published, the following remarks occur : " Since the eighth 
edition of this work was published, a new disease (foot-and- 
mouth) has appeared among cattle and sheep, and for the last 
twelve years has spread through the kingdom, scarcely sparing 
a single parish." 
When " the distemper " was first publicly reported to exist 
in dairies situated in the environs of London, viz., in July 
1839, the English veterinarians of the day appeared to be totally 
unaware of the nature and history of the malady, and wrote of 
it as a novelty and a wonder ; some of them suggested that it 
might be due to peculiar atmospheric influences. This want of 
knowledge was remarkable, for in December of the previous 
year, 1838, a paragraph had appeared in the London newspapers, 
announcing that an " epidemic disease prevailed at this time 
amongst cows in the neighbourhood of Houdan and Pont- 
chatron, in France, large swellings appearing on the feet, to 
such an extent as to prevent them from walking : the animals 
lose their appetites, and foam greatly at the mouth." Again, 
in November 1839, ' The Farmers' Magazine ' contained a 
letter from a German correspondent in Mecklenburg, expressing 
surprise that English veterinarians should be ignorant of a dis- 
ease which had been known on the Continent for several years. 
He stated that it came from Poland, through Pomerania and 
the Marshes of Russia, reaching iSIecklenburg in the spring of 
1838. Professor Fergusson also appeared to have had some 
experience of the malady, for, in a lecture to the Royal Dublin. 
Society in 1841, he stated : " In the year 183(3, while I ,was 
attached to one of the Continental veterinary colleges, the disease 
attracted my attention from its great prevalence and destructive 
effects among the herds of the neighbouring hamlets. Although 
new in this country, the present epizootic had travelled through 
Spain, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Bo- 
hemia, Hungary, and Prussia, previous to making its appearance 
in England, which it seems it did, on the western coast, about 
two years ago." 
Further, a paper by Dr. Gilmeister, veterinary surgeon of 
Bavaria, read by Mr. Erne before the Veterinary Medical 
Society in May 1840, showed that foot-and-mouth disease pre- 
vailed in Hungary and Lower Austria in 1834; that it spread 
