208 Report on the Health of Animals of the Farm. 
limited movement of stock at that particular season, and it was 
accordingly prognosticated that, with the more extensive move- 
ment of animals during the spring and summer months, the 
malady would recur with its former virulence and frequency. 
These fears were not, however, realised ; for during the past 
year the number of cases gradually and steadily decreased until 
what might be called a minimum had been reached, and the 
epizootic, which had caused so much loss some eighteen months 
before, had almost died out. 
The Reports of Quarter Sessions at the beginning of October 
indicate that, as regards foot-and-mouth disease, many counties 
could then show a cleaner bill of health than they had pos- 
sessed for several years. In several counties not a single case 
of the disease was reported, and in others only a few cases. 
Instances might be quoted in which the fresh cases had de- 
creased to four per week, as compared with the weekly average 
of hundreds only some six months previously. 
To show how readily the prevalence of contagious diseases 
among animals in this country may affect the exportation of 
pure-bred high-priced stock, it need only be mentioned that in 
the early part of the past year, when foot-and-mouth disease had 
considerably abated, the Secretary of the United States Treasury 
withdrew the order prohibiting the importation of cattle from 
Great Britain, which the American Government had considered 
it necessary to issue for the protection of their stock. At the 
same time a fresh order was issued, allowing the importation of 
blood-stock when accompanied by a certificate from an American 
Consul, stating that the animals were in a sound and healthy 
condition when shipped, and entirely free from foot-and-mouth 
disease. 
Although we have suffered so little, some of our Conti- 
nental neighbours have had, during the past year, to contend 
with rather wide-spread outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, 
and many foreign diseased animals have been landed at our 
ports. Thus during the summer, when anxious to obtain 
cases of this malady for observation, and material for experi- 
ment, the officers of the Brown Institution could not hear of 
any among home stock ; in fact, none were to be found in the 
Metropolitan Cattle Market, which may usually be taken as a 
very good index of the amount of the disease present in the 
country. By the kindness and assistance of the Officers of 
the Veterinary Department of the Privy Council, material was 
obtained from foreign cattle, without which the experiments on 
foot-and-mouth disease could scarcely have been carried out 
this year. 
There is reason to believe that the disease has again extended 
