The Outbreak of Cattle-Plague. 
217 
•warn the authorities, and to ask them to make an investigation 
as to the sanitary condition of the stock in the town and neigh- 
bourhood. This, he had been informed, was done. He also 
stated that he had taken measures to ascertain the destination of 
the animals sold in the 1 full market for English cattle on the 
following Monday, and that all these animals had been ac- 
counted for excepting two, which had been sent to Wakefield, 
and which, as he then stated, were undoubtedly in a healthy 
condition, or an outbreak would have taken place long ago. 
But it seemed that this statement had been interpreted to mean 
that two of the thirty-nine cattle had been smuggled out of the 
defined part of the port at Hull, and sent to Wakefield. But 
the fact was that of the thirty-nine cattle in question several had 
foot-and-mouth disease, as also had the sheep landed with them, 
and consequently the sheep as well as the cattle were slaughtered 
within the defined part of the port. The only other cargo 
which arrived at Hull from Hamburg consisted of twenty-five 
cattle and thirty-seven sheep, all of which had foot-and-mouth 
disease, and in this case also both cattle and sheep were slaugh- 
tered, so that there was nothing to apprehend then, nor was 
there now, from these animals. In the year 1872 disease was 
introduced in some way to the Hull market from a cargo of 
Russian cattle which were not landed at all. Yet, notwith- 
standing all the precautions taken, and notwithstanding the fact 
that cattle were not brought to the shore, three animals which 
were bought in the Hull English cattle-market on the following 
Monday took the cattle-plague into three districts of the East 
Riding of Yorkshire. It was this fact which led him to make 
the inquiries just mentioned. It now appeared that from some 
cause or other cattle-plague had appeared in one instance in a 
Hull dairy situated in Hill Street. It had been ascertained 
that six animals were suffering from disease on Sunday last, and 
two others were attacked on Monday. All these had been 
slaughtered. It had also been discovered that a neighbouring 
dairyman had got rid of his stock. He stated that he had sent 
them to the butcher, but declined to give a reason for doing so. 
The presumption naturally was that he had some disease among 
his cattle or he would not have got rid of them, and if this was 
the case one might conclude that the disease was cattle-plague. 
If, as he had said, he sent them to the butcher, no danger was 
to be feared from that source, but if on the other hand he sent 
them into the Hull market, of course it was impossible to say 
how far the disease might by this time have penetrated. — Pro- 
fessor Brown then went on to say that he believed the object of 
the Council was to recommend to stock -owners and the local 
authorities all over the country the importance of instituting 
