4 Foot-and- Mouth Disease : its History and Teachings. 
decline ; the second outbreak occurred in 1845 ; the third in the 
latter part of 1849, lasting over the year 1852. A considerable 
period then elapsed before another accession took place, viz., 
in 1861 ; and after 1863 came a period of quiescence lasting 
for a year and a half. In the middle of 1865 began the fifth 
spread of the disease, and this occurred simultaneously with the 
invasion of rinderpest. 
The strict measures applied against cattle-plague (rinderpest), 
in 1866, had the effect not only of checking the course of foot- 
and-mouth disease, but also of opening the eyes of farmers to the 
fact that the troublesome complaint was amenable to vigorous 
measures for its suppression ; lor, although it was not entirely 
extirpated at that period, very few centres remained in 1868. 
The sixth outbreak, which set in during 1869, proved to be an 
exceedingly severe visitation ; between August of that year 
and the close of 1871, there were officially reported in Great 
Britain, 92,162 outbreaks, and 1,344,525 animals attacked. 
Official returns were discontinued in 1872, but the disease 
only began to decline in intensity toward the latter end of that 
year, and the Veterinary Department reported that " considering 
the comparatively slight attention which was given to the 
subject of sanitary regulations in regard to foot-and-mouth 
disease at that time, it is probable that the actual outbreaks 
were double the number of those that were reported." Three 
or four million cattle, sheep, and pigs, smitten with the disease 
in the three years, may easily have destroyed, directly and con- 
sequentially, eight to ten million pounds sterling of agricultural 
capital. 
After a lull in the prevalence of the contagion, it rapidly 
increased in 1874, beginning, however, to decline again in the 
autumn of 1875. The eighth outbreak occurred in December 
1876, and had spread over considerable parts of England, 
Wales, and Scotland, before the cattle-plague (rinderpest) 
restrictions, imposed in 1877, checked the course of the 
mischief; so effectual did they prove that, by the end of 1878, 
only two centres were known to the Veterinary Department in 
Great Britain. The ninth outbreak, early in 1879, was met 
by restrictive measures, and happily was stopped before the 
contagion had obtained any grasp of the country, and during 
the first nine months of 1880 the kingdom was absolutely free 
from the disease. 
Although it cannot actually be demonstrated that germs of 
the contagion survived in some protective concealment through- 
out the spring and summer of 1880, and these with sufficient 
vitality to start the disease again in the autumn, the hypothesis 
that such germs were so preserved, and that they did start again 
