Annual Report of the Royal Veterinary College. 117 
confirm those which had already been arrived at from the 
previous experiments at the College as to the contagious nature 
of the disease, and what is of more importance, tend to support the 
belief which is entertained by many practical men that ordinary 
causes, such as injury to the foot, or long contact with wet land, will 
not induce the disease without the intervention of a diseased 
animal. 
Experiments at Harrow were commenced with two ewes affected 
with foot disease which was considered by the owner to be the true 
contagious form of foot-rot. The animals were presented by Mr. 
Charles "Whitehead, of Maidstone. W ith the diseased ewes there were 
penned, in the first week of April, some Welsh sheep and some tegs 
from Berkshire, all of them, so far as could be ascertained, free from 
any suspicion of foot-rot. Other sheep from the same flocks were 
penned on the opposite side of the same pasture, away from possible 
risk of contact with the diseased sheep. 
During April and part of May no rain fell, and the sound sheep 
remained sound. But on June 2, after some heavy showers, the 
sheep in contact with the Kentish ewes began to suffer from foot- 
rot of the characteristic kind. The sheep on the opposite side of 
the meadow under the same climatic conditions remained sound. 
On September 2 these sheep were still free from any trace of disease. 
Three of them were then moved to the other side of the meadow 
and put into a pen from which several diseased sheep had been 
removed two days previously, and on September 19 one of them was 
the subject of foot-rot and the rest followed in succession. A Cots- 
wold wether and a cross-bred lamb from Gloucestershire, which had 
been kept on a wet meadow at Denham for several months without 
showing any sign of foot disease, were brought to Harrow, and 
placed on a pasture with some of the diseased sheep on September 
19, and both of them became diseased, the lamb on October 9, and 
the wether on October 11. Meanwhile one of the Welsh sheep 
which was still left in the pen on the side of the meadow away from 
the diseased sheep remained healthy at the end of the year, although 
it had been standing for weeks over its fetlocks in mud and manure. 
At Denham the experiments which were carried on at the same 
time as those at Harrow were attended with equally definite 
results. An extensive outbreak of foot-rot among newly-purchased 
sheep on the farm afforded an exceptional opportunity of conduct- 
ing an inquiry, as the owner of the flock was himself interested in 
the question, and competent to superintend the experiments. 
Ten sound sheep, five tegs and five lambs, were obtained from a 
farm on the Cotswolds which had a reputation of having been 
always free from foot-rot. Three tegs and three lambs were penned 
as test cases in a wet meadow, bounded on three sides by a river, 
a pasture in which sheep were never put. 
The remaining wethers and lambs were divided and put with 
diseased sheep on grass land and in pens with concrete floors which 
were swept and cleansed every day. 
The experiments were commenced in the last week of June 
