29 
FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. 
Comparing the time at which we write with the corre- 
sponding period of last month, a considerable diminution 
has taken place in the attacks and also in the centres of this 
malady, although the affection exists in a larger number of 
counties. If this diminution be followed up by energetic 
action on the part of the local authority throughout the 
kingdom, it may be expected that foot and mouth disease 
will soon assume its ordinary proportions. In another place 
we have called attention to an outbreak of the affection in 
the Agricultural Hall on the last day of the Smithfield Club 
Show (see Leader). 
Some diseased cattle have been imported, and Hamburg, 
Bremen, and Antwerp have sent us cargoes of pigs, among 
which many cases of the malady were detected. In each 
instance the diseased animals were slaughtered at the port. 
The widespread existence of foot and mouth disease is also 
shown by the circumstance that accounts have been received 
of its prevalence in Uruguay and Brazil, and likewise in 
several places in North Africa. 
CATTLE PLAGUE. 
Even before our last number was in the hands of the 
publisher, the fears which we expressed of the cattle plague 
extending from France to Belgium had received full verifica- 
tion. The disease had already crossed the frontier and esta- 
blished itself at La Haillante, in the commune of Jamoigne, 
Belgian Luxembourg. This threatening state of things was 
promptly met by the Government, and an Order of Council 
was issued requiring the slaughter of all cattle, sheep, and 
goats imported from Belgium, as was already the case 
with those from the ports of France and the North German 
Confederation. This extension of the cattle plague from 
France to Belgium was quickly followed by a second out- 
break of the disease at Signeulx, in the commune of Bleid, 
not far distant from the French village of Sapogne. Since 
then no further information has been received of other out- 
breaks, and as the disease was vigorously dealt with in both 
instances, it may be hoped that Belgium is once more free of 
cattle plague. 
The accounts received from France are, however, very 
