■134 
Report of the Governors of 
places in England and Scotland. At the beginning: of the summer, 
however, a somewhat sudden augmentation of the disease occurred ; 
and as this circumstance was coincident with the malady 
assuming an epizootic form on the Continent, it was believed by 
many persons that its increase here depended on the importation 
of diseased animals from abroad. An official inquiry, however, 
did not confirm this opinion. The experience of the last thirty 
years has shown that periodical outbreaks of the disease in 
its epizootic form have occasionally occurred. At no time was 
the disease more rife than in 1839-40, or nearly three years 
previously to foreign cattle being allowed to be imported. In 
that outbreak, cattle, sheep, and pigs, and also the gallinaceous 
tribe of fowls, suffered equally from the disease as during its 
recent occurrence. 
The late outbreak on the Continent has been as remarkable 
as that which has taken place in Great Britain. Countries which 
had been fiee from the disease for many years have been visited ; 
and it may be said that, from the shores of the German Ocean 
and the Baltic to those of the Black Sea, scarcely a single country 
has escaped. Under such circumstances, it could not be expected 
that foreign animals could be landed here without some of them 
being found affected with the malady ; and although it cannot 
be said that no augmentation of the attacks was thereby produced, 
yet it may be affirmed that the manner in which the Govern- 
ment dealt with imported cattle, sheep, and pigs, materially 
reduced the evil. 
Another contagious disease of cattle has excited a good deal 
of attention — Pleuro-pneumonia ; and in addition to the legis- 
lative provisions for Its suppression, a revival of the system of 
inoculation, by way of prevention, has been resorted to. Expe- 
riments for this purpose have been had recourse to in several 
parts of the country, but chiefly in Norfolk and Cheshire. Some 
of the results have been published ; but In the present state of the 
inquiry, no correct deductions can be arrived at from the data 
obtained. It may, however, be reasonably doubted whether the 
results will so far differ from those which were obtained in 1852-3 
as to justify the adoption of the system. At that time, nume- 
rous experiments were carried out by the joint exertions of the 
College and the Royal Agricultural Society, which clearly 
showed that the system could not be recommended, and that It 
was not based on any known principles of science. Full reports 
of the inquiry were made to the Society, and published in its 
Journal for 1853. 
It Is a subject of sincere congratulation that no fresh intro- 
duction of the cattle plague has occurred within the year. 
