Report on the Health of Animals of the Farm in 1877. 237 
meadow on the opposite side of the river above the point of 
any sewage contamination. 
The removal of the cows from these pastures, and the substi- 
tution of a small quantity of good sound hay as part of their 
food, arrested the further progress of the malady. 
Foot-and-Mouth Disease. — Towards the close of 1876 fears 
were entertained that after the decline of this disease to a few 
centres it would again extend among young stock, which pos- 
sessed no immunity by passing through it in the wide-spread 
epizootic of 1874-5. 
A few cases were detected in the Metropolitan Cattle Market, 
which had for some time been free. The restrictions, however, 
imposed on the movements of stock, and the closing for a time 
of some of the markets in several counties owing to the existence 
of cattle-plague in the country, limited very materially the 
spread of this disease. Since the withdrawal of the cattle- 
plague regulations, during the past three or four months, several 
outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease have been reported, but in 
most cases only a few animals have been affected, and the disease 
has been of a mild type. Some counties that have formerly 
suffered severely from this scourge are now free, and in others 
the number of animals affected during the last quarter of the 
past year has been very small. 
In Newcastle, where the disease had not been seen since 
March, an outbreak occurred in four salesmen's lairs in the 
week ending December 22nd, among Scotch and Irish beasts 
kept over from the previous week's maiket. 
Pleuro-pneumonia. — The extension to Ireland of the regula- 
tions relating to this disease, has, according to competent autho- 
rities, produced a very marked effect in limiting its spread. 
In Norfolk little more than half the number of cases have been 
reported in 1877 as compared with the previous year, and this 
has been attributed chiefly to the slaughter of and compensation 
for diseased animals in Ireland. 
In addition to this, we must not fail to recognise the restric- 
tions placed on the movement of cattle and the closing of some 
fairs for a time, while rinderpest existed, as a means of prevent- 
ing the spread of pleuro-pneumonia, as well as other contagious 
diseases. Among dairy-stock in the metropolis this malady 
has been rather prevalent for the past three or four months. At 
the time I wished to find infected sheds in which to place in- 
oculated animals, as a test of the value of this measure as a pre- 
ventive, more than twenty places, all within the metropolitan 
area, were available for the purpose as infected premises. One 
great difficulty in dealing with this disease is due to the pro- 
longed period of incubation in which the poison remains in a 
