liv Monthly Council, April 12, 1893. 
been reported to the Board of Agriculture 
this year 378 outbreaks and 652 horses at- 
tacked. In the corresponding period of last 
year there were 385 outbreaks and 710 horses 
attacked. 
Rabies. — This disease is, unfortunately, 
again increasing at a very rapid rate. In 
the first quarter of this year there have been 
nineteen cases, as compared with two last 
year in the same period. 
Foot-axd-Mouth Disease.— The outbreak 
of this disease which occurred at Guestling, 
near Hastings, in February has now died 
out, without having spread beyond the farm 
buildings in which it was first discovered. 
In the first thirteen weeks of this year there 
have been two outbreaks of foot-and-mouth 
disease and thirty animals attacked, whereas 
last year in the corresponding period there 
were fifty-nine outbreaks and 2,355 animals 
attacked. 
Abortion in Cattle. 
Sir John Thoeold also reported 
that the Committee had bad under 
their careful consideration the ques- 
tion of abortion in cattle, and recom- 
mended that a letter be addressed to 
the President of the Board of Agri- 
culture, asking the Board to undertake 
at the earliest possible moment an 
exhaustive inquiry into the nature 
and causes of this disease. They 
had prepared the following memo- 
randum on the subject, which they 
suggested should be sent to the Board 
of Agriculture for their informa- 
tion : — 
Epizootic Abortion in Cattle. 
Although there are no official statistics 
showing the losses caused by abortion in 
cattle, such losses have now become exceed- 
ingly serious, and they are very widely 
spread amongst the herds of the country. 
In a single outbreak of this disease, which 
occurred at Kirkby Overblow, in Yorkshire, 
in the year 1886, no less than 300 cases were 
recorded, of which not less than 200 occurred 
within a radius of two miles, and the esti- 
mated total loss to the owners of the aborting 
animals was £1,600. The cause of the affec- 
tion lias never yet been definitely ascertained, 
and, consequently, there is no degree of 
certainty attaching to any of the remedies 
that may be applied. To show the difference 
of opinion which prevails as to the nature 
of the disease, it is only necessary to mention 
some of the various causes which have been 
assigned to it, such as ergoted grasses, un- 
suitable food, impure water, “sympathy,” 
bad smells, disease in the bull, tendency to 
fatten, &c. That the disease is either con- 
tagious or infectious, practical men entertain 
no doubt, but the question as to the means 
whereby the contagion or infection is com- 
municated still remains unsolved. 
In 1887, an inquiry was conducted under 
the auspices of the Higliland and Agricul- 
tural Society by Dr. Sims Woodhead, Pro- 
fessor McFadyean, and Dr. A. P. Aitken, the 
results of which were published in that 
Society’s transactions for 1887 and 1889. 
The inquiry showed that the disease was 
becoming increasingly prevalent throughout 
the length and breadth of Scotland, and that 
it caused a great annual loss to cattle 
breeders. As a result of experiments which 
were carried on in connection with this 
inquiry, five distinct organisms were stated 
to have been separated from vaginal and 
uterine discharges. The experiments, how- 
ever, stopped at this stage, and the point 
as to whether such organisms were capable 
of producing the disease in other cows 
remained undetermined. 
The necessity of further investigations 
into the causation of the disease, with a view 
of discovering remedies of a reliable and effi- 
cacious kind, is therefore apparent. Such 
investigations ought to be directed in the 
first place to discovering whether any struc- 
tural alteration or abnormality in the womb, 
calf, or foetal membranes is present in cases 
of abortion. This cannot be ascertained 
except by making a post-mortem examina- 
tion of both cow and foetus in a considerable 
number of cases, say twenty. For this pur- 
pose it would be essential to have the cows 
killed and examined immediately, or, at most, 
within a few hours after the act of abortion. 
The inquiry ought to embrace experiments 
planned so as to prove whether the disease 
is contagious or infectious. In order to 
throw light upon this point, it would be 
necessary to stall together, in healthy pre- 
mises, aborted cows and cows bought from 
stocks known to be free from abortion, and 
to use other likely means of infecting cows 
• on the assumption that the disease is thus 
transmissible. 
Unless the inquiry can be commenced 
early in August next, it will necessarily be 
delayed for another year ; and in view of the 
great importance of this matter to the 
agricultural interests of the United King- 
dom, the Council of the Royal Agricultural 
Society strongly urge the Board of Agricul- 
ture to undertake an exhaustive inquiry 
into the subject at the earliest possible 
moment. 
Signed on behalf of the 
Veterinary Committee. 
J. H. Tiioroli), Chairman. 
Royal Agricultural Societv of England, 
April 11th, 1893. 
Sir John Thoeold observed that 
it was very important that steps 
should be taken to deal with the 
disease of abortion in cattle, which, 
as the Council were aware, occasioned 
every year great losses amongst 
stockowners in this country, and had 
lately increased to a very serious 
extent. The Veterinary Committee 
considered that the time had arrived 
when definite measures should be 
taken to inquire into the nature and 
causes of the disease, with a view to 
the application of effectual remedies 
against it. They felt, therefore, that 
this matter should be brought strongly 
under the notice of the Board of 
Agriculture, and that the extreme 
