270 Re-port on the Health of Animals of the Farm. 
direct in this important question. Doubtless the disease has been 
widely diffused, and has produced serious losses to the owners of 
cattle ; but to me it appears that the public excitement on the 
subject has not been exclusively due to either or both of these 
causes. It is to be remembered that on the introduction of 
cattle-plague in 1865, legislative measures were adopted for the 
suppression of this and other contagious diseases of animals which 
constitute a considerable proportion of the wealth of the country, 
as well as the food of the people, and that thev proved eminently 
successful in so far as the extermination of cattle-plague was 
concerned. W e see in this fact one cause of the excitement 
which has prevailed ; and perhaps but for it, foot-and-mouth 
disease would have run its ordinary course as much unheeded in 
1875 as in any of its former outbreaks in this country. 
It has been repeatedly stated, and of this I am a witness, 
that foot-and-mouth disease was first seen in England — at least 
during the present generation — in the summer of 1839. At 
that time the importation of foreign cattle, sheep, and pigs 
was interdicted, and so continued until 1842 ; a fact of con- 
siderable importance, as bearing on the question how im- 
ported animals should be dealt with to avoid the introduction of 
contagious diseases. The history of these diseases of animals 
traces far back into the ages of the past, and shows that they 
are not confined to any particular country or clime. Foot-and- 
mouth disease can be recognised in these early histories, and 
without going further back than the last 150 years, we have for 
this period fair descriptions of periodic outbreaks of this maladv 
on the continent of Europe. Shortly before its appearance here, 
the disease prevailed extensively in Hungary and in Lower 
Austria, viz. in 1834, and quickly extending the area of its 
existence, it was seen in turn in Bohemia, Saxony, Prussia, the 
German States, Belgium, Holland, and France, and lastly in 
England, where it has since remained, despite all efforts to 
effect its extermination. 
As may be supposed, various theories were promulgated in 
1839—40 with regard to the causes giving rise to the malady. 
The one which took the firmest hold of the public mind was that 
which attributed the affection to atmospheric influences, and 
hence it soon came to be designated " the cattle-epidemic." 
This view is even still held by some persons ; while almost 
without exception those who have investigated the pathology of 
the disease are agreed that its extension is due to infection, and 
that the infecting material may be carried from animal to animal 
by indirect as well as by direct means. 
Although it is not known how the malady was introduced 
into England, it was satisfactorily shown at the time that the 
