FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
51 
where the malady has been prevalent for several months. 
The other week a woman who had been frequently in contact 
with cattle labouring under “ murrain" at a farm near Forres, 
was for several days bad with some sort of disease about her 
mouth. On examination by the inspector and others the 
disease was pronounced to be “ murrain." 
[We give insertion to this report as we are anxious to 
note every supposed extension of the malady from cattle to 
the human subject. Few, if any, of these cases, however, 
have received confirmation from scientific investigators.] 
Singular Transmission of a Cattle Disease. — The 
Phare de la Loire relates that a cattle dealer of Drain, Maine- 
et-Loire, perceived last week (about the middle of October,) 
that one of his finest oxen was affected with anthrax or car- 
buncle, and having consulted a veterinary practitioner, was 
by him reeommended to destroy the animal. Being, how- 
ever, reluctant to lose the value of the beast, he first slaugh- 
tered it, and then offered to give the skin to the sons of two 
butchers of Drain, named Renou and Marceau, as a recom- 
pense for their trouble of skinning it. The bargain was 
accepted, and at the same time he entered into an agreement 
with a butcher of Ancenia, and sold him, on cheap terms, 
the body of the animal, divided into eight pieces, the meat 
weighing about 750lb., averring that he had killed the ox 
because it was dying of a plethora of blood. These pieces 
were sent to Nantes and sold with a profit to a salter, who 
would naturally dispose of them in his turn. But the con- 
sequences to the young men who had taken off the hide 
were fatal, as both were a few days after seized with fever, 
accompanied with glandular enlargements under the armpits. 
One of them died on the Saturday following, and the other 
the next day, October 22nd. 
Watering of Cattle in Railway Trucks. — A very 
praiseworthy and ingenious attempt to supply cattle with 
water during a railway journey has been made by Mr. W. H. 
Stone, M.P. for Portsmouth, which may be said to have 
been fairly successful in an experimental trial, at the Holloway 
Station, Gr^at^Torthern Railway, on Wednesday, December 
8th, at which we were present. Whether this plan is suffi- 
ciently simple, and the present fittings of a description to 
stand the rough work of cattle transit, we do not undertake 
to decide ; but, at all events, the scheme worked better than 
might be expected on its first trial. An enclosed cistern or 
tank, capable of holding about forty gallons of water, is attached 
high up to the end of the truck ; and underneath it, and 
