Report to the General Meetivg. 
ix 
tions of the Council which had led to its appointment, either 
with regard to foreign or to home stock, the Council felt it 
necessary to urge upon the Government the desirability of 
taking, as soon as possible, the necessary steps to carry those 
recommendations into effect. At their request the Prime 
Minister received a deputation on the 23rd of last month, when 
they had the satisfaction of learning that it is the intention of 
the Government to legislate upon the subject as early as possible 
next session. A report of what took place at this interview 
has been sent to every Member of the Society, and the Council 
venture to express the hope that the Members generally will use 
their influence in their several districts to obtain that general 
effort to stamp out the contagious diseases of farm stock to which 
the Prime Minister so pointedly referred. 
The recent large importations of American meat into Great 
Britain have proved that the prohibition of importations of 
live stock need not enhance the price of meat to the consumer, 
as similar appliances to those used by American exporters 
could be adapted to the requirements of the Continental trade. 
The Council have, therefore, thought it desirable to place the 
Members of the Society in possession of the fullest informa- 
tion on this subject, and with this view have published two 
exhaustive articles, by Professor Sheldon, of Cirencester, and 
Professor Alvord, of Massachussets, U.S., in the last number of 
the ' Journal.' 
The experiments upon Pleuro-pneumonia and Foot-and-mouth 
disease have been continued during the year at the Brown 
Institution, under the superintendence of Dr. Burdon Sanderson. 
Valuable indications have been obtained and described in the 
Reports already published in the ' Journal,' and in the agricul- 
tural newspapers ; but before these can be accepted as final, 
they will require careful confirmation. The Council have 
renewed the grant for these investigations, the scope of which 
will next year be extended to Quarter-evil and diseases of a 
similar nature. 
The last Quarterly Report of the Chemical Committee shows 
that the need of caution in purchasing artificial manures and 
feeding-stuffs still continues. The Council, therefore, take this 
opportunity of once more repeating their advice that these sub- 
stances should be bought by guaranteed analysis, and that their 
quality should be checked by sending a sample from the bulk 
to a qualified chemist for examination. 
