1x2 
Monthly Gouncilf June S, 1891. 
Rabies. — There were eight cases 
of rabies in dogs reported, viz., 
one in Lancaster, one in London, 
one in Middlesex, one in Somerset, 
and four in York (W.R.). 
Considerable discussion had taken 
place upon the recent large increase 
in the number of ^outbreaks of swine 
fever, and it had been agreed to 
submit the following resolution for 
adoption by the Council : — 
Seeing that swine fever is largely 
on the increase, and that the 
measures at present in force are 
inadequate to check, much less 
suppress it, the Council would 
earnestly direct the attention of the 
Board of Agriculture to the urgent 
necessity of adopting more strin- 
gent measures to mitigate the 
severity of this disease. 
The attention of the Committee had 
been drawn to a communication, 
addressed by the Highland and Agri- 
cultural Society of Scotland, to the 
Board of Agriculture, as to the 
exhibition in England and Scotland 
of cattle exhibited at the Eoyal 
Dublin Society's Show, held at Dublin 
last March, within, or in close prox- 
imity to, a district scheduled under 
the Pleuro-pneumonia Order. The 
Committee were of opinion that no 
animals which were now in, or which 
had been exhibited in, a scheduled 
district should be admitted to the 
Royal Agricultural Society's Show at 
Doncaster, and that if any such 
animals had been entered, their 
owners should be informed of this 
resolution, the entries cancelled, and 
the fees returned. 
The Committee recommended [the 
appointment of Mr. D. M. Storrar, of 
Abergavenny, as the Society's Pro- 
vincial Veterinary Surgeon for Mon- 
mouthshire, in succession to Mr. 
Lewis, resigned. 
A letter had been read from Sir 
Joseph Lister, Chairman of the 
Executive Committee of the British 
Institute of Preventive Medicine, 
seeking the Society's support in an 
application to the Board of Trade for 
a licence to the Institute enabling 
them, as a " charitable institution 
not working for profit," to omit the 
word " limited " from their proposed 
title, and asking that the President 
and Council of the Society might be 
oflBcially represented at a deputation 
in support of the application which 
was appointed to wait upon Sir 
Michael Hicks-Beach on the 5th 
instant. The Committee recom- 
mended that the Secretary be in- 
structed to express the approval of 
the ^Council in the object of the 
application made by the Institute, 
but that they were not able to take 
part in the proposed deputation. 
Swine Fever. 
Mr. Dent, with reference to the 
proposed resolution as to swine fever, 
said the question was whether the 
Council were prepared to make any 
definite recommendations to the 
Board of Agriculture on the subject. 
There was a very general feeling in 
the Veterinary Committee on the 
previous day that if any more was 
going to be done, some far more 
stringent measures should be adopted 
than were in force at the present 
time. There was a strong feeling 
amongst those who had anything to 
do with the subject, practically, that 
they should stop for some considerable 
period throughout the United King- 
dom all markets for swine. There 
was no doubt that the disease was 
principally contracted by animals 
being taken to markets which could 
not well be cleaned, and which were 
always more or less centres of in- 
fection. In addition to that they 
must carry out a more stringent law 
of slaughter and compensation. In 
certain districts of the West Riding 
of Yorkshire every collier had a pig, 
and in the neighbourhoods of Shef- 
field, Barnsley, and Eipon the disease 
was always more or less existing in 
the pigstyes of the colliers — places 
very ill-adapted to the keeping of 
swine. But he questioned whether, 
even if they resorted to slaughter, 
they would ever thoroughly eradicate 
or stamp out the disease in localities 
of the kind. Looking to the little 
impression made upon the disease 
and the carelessness and recklessness 
of pig-owners and pig-dealers, and 
people connected with the trade, he 
should be inclined rather to strike the 
disease out of the Contagious Diseases 
(Animals) Act altogether, and let 
proprietors of pigs take their own 
