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EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
the following sensible observations : — “ The foot-and- 
mouth disease,” it says, “ has reappeared in many districts 
surrounding Preston ; and between 1000 and 2000 head of 
cattle are reported to be suffering from it. This is serious ; 
and we are inclined to ask a question we have more than 
once put before in reference to the disease, — 'whether it is 
wise to leave the important part of the business to police 
officers? They are the legally appointed inspectors in all 
districts ; but, as a rule, they know nothing about cattle, 
certainly not sufficient to justify them in giving any prac- 
tical or scientific opinion about their condition; and what 
we recommend is, that whilst in the first instance cases 
of suspected disease should be reported to them, the real 
business of inspection should be in the hands of the vete- 
rinary surgeons of the various districts, just as it was when 
the cattle plague was raging.” 
In a letter which we extract from the Newcastle Daily 
Post the following passage occurs : — “ A certain section in 
this country are continually crying down the importation of 
foreign stock from abroad, and whenever disease appears 
among our own herds set it down as the debut of the 
foreigner. This is utter folly and prejudice ; whatever may 
have been the origin of murrain and pleuro-pneumonia, 
they have now been so long known in this country that 
we may fairly call them indigenous to it. Why, in the 
valleys of the Wansbecks and Pont, where one of them is 
now raging, a foreign animal has never been imported — has 
never, indeed, come within twenty miles.” 
These statements and all the evidence contained in them 
are worthy of some notice, but they excite no attention from 
those who have adopted the facile expedient of explaining 
all the outbreaks of infectious disease by referring them 
to the free movement of cattle from unscheduled countries. 
It is quite time that this unnecessary and useless cry 
should cease, no good is gained bv its utterance ; no doubt 
it is to some extent comforting to the feelings of those who 
like to adopt the injured individual tone, and mutter im- 
proprieties of speech against the Government which lets 
loose foreign cattle and sheep to spread destruction among 
our flocks and herds, we believe that is the correct phrase, but 
