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infection had been carried by the official inspectors from 
unhealthy to healthy districts, and it was suggested that the 
inspectors ought to be compelled to cleanse themselves and 
undergo a disinfecting process before they were allowed to 
visit and inspect cattle not known for certain to be diseased. 
It was characterised as a most unwise proceeding to send 
forth an army of inspectors to invade every farmstead in 
the kingdom, and not to adopt and enforce stringent regu- 
lations to prevent the possibility of these men being the 
means of carrying the dreaded infection into healthy localities. 
It was remarked that official interference had virtually taken 
the management of the cattle plague out of the hands of 
those who, from their practical experience and the deep interest 
they had in the matter, might be held best qualified to deal 
with it, and there were grounds for thinking that if the farmers 
had been left to act for themselves without official interference, 
as they did some years ago when pleuro-pneumonia carried 
off large numbers of cattle, the rinderpest might never have 
assumed its present formidable aspect. 
A paper was read £< On the Liassic and Oolitic Iron Ores 
of Yorkshire and the East Midland Counties,” by Messrs. 
Edward Hull, F.G.S., and William Brockbank* 
In this paper the authors gave the results of their observa- 
tions on the nature, geological position, and qualities of the 
iron ores which are now being worked at intervals from the 
banks of the Tees to that of the Evenlode in Oxfordshire, 
extending through the counties of York, Lincoln, Rutland, 
Leicester, Northampton, Warwick, Oxford, &c. ; at the same 
time embodying the opinions of previous observers. 
Remarking that just at the time when some of the older 
iron-producing districts were giving evidence of approaching 
exhaustion, the enormous stores of iron ore in the newer form- 
ations were discovered; the authors commenced by a descrip- 
tion of the geological position of the strata from which the 
