EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
347 
animals affected with cattle plague for experimental treat- 
ment, we can but faintly express a hope that France may 
escape our experience ; she evidently declines to profit by the 
lesson which cost us so dearly. 
THE ALLEGED OUTBREAK OF PLEURO-PNEUMONIA AMONG 
DUTCH CATTLE AT THE ISLINGTON MARKET. 
Referring to our comments upon the unfounded report 
of cattle belonging to Mr. Kendall having been slaughtered 
on account of pleuro-pneumonia in the lairs at Islington, or 
in a slaughter-house adjacent thereto, the editor of the 
Chamber of Agriculture Journal , in allusion to a quotation 
from the Journal of February 20th, of a report of cattle 
plague among Dutch beasts landed at Harwich asks — “ Are 
pigs animals?” We may venture to admit that they are, 
but we must call attention to the fact that we made no use 
to the word animals. The paragraph in the Chamber of 
Agriculture Journal for February 20th, page 140, reads 
thus : — Cattle plague being now rife, almost within sight 
of our coast, no wonder that reports of a very alarming 
kind get into circulation. During last week, for example, 
it was rumoured that rinderpest had appeared in a cargo of 
Dutch beasts at Harwich. We are happy to say the report 
is not true. But the Secretary of the Home Cattle Defence 
Association writes us that a cargo of animals from Holland 
has been landed at Harwich with the foot-and-mouth 
complaint.” 
The only portion of the paragraph which struck us as 
being worthy of notice, and which we therefore quoted, was 
that which referred to the rumour of rinderpest in a cargo 
of Dutch cattle at Harwich, a port where, as we stated, 
there is no part defined for landing cattle. 
In pointing out the extreme absurdity of such a rumour, 
we did not expect to be accredited with the discovery of a 
“ mare's nest,” or of any other phenomenon ; we merely 
meant to remind the author of the report that very little 
advantage is likely to be gained from the publication of a 
