FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. 
67 
havoc in Italy and Germany in 1711. “The affection/’ he 
writes, “came originally from Hungary by means of bullocks 
brought from that country (to Germany) ; for there 
appeared nothing in the constitution of the air, nor in the 
food, that could give rise to it ; nor did it affect cattle which 
had no communication with those that came from Hungary. 
The infection seemed to be communicated by their saliva 
dropped in the grass, so that the sound cattle which after- 
wards fed on the same pasture contracted the disorder with 
which the others were infected. The disease was attended 
with a burning heat, a total loss of appetite, a difficulty of 
breathing; in some bullocks the tongue was inflamed and 
covered with many red blisters.” 
In several particulars — the communication of infection by 
the agency of the saliva and the blisters on the tongue espe- 
cially — the description of the epizootic corresponds to the 
symptoms of the mouth and foot disease ; but the other and 
more severe lesions to which he refers, and the great mor- 
tality, are not ordinary characteristics of that disease. 
In 1834 the malady appeared in Hungary and Lower 
Austria, and spread to Bohemia, Saxony, aud Prussia ; 
taking a north-easterly direction, it entered Germany, and 
thence advanced to Holland and France, reaching England 
in August, 1839* 
Through what channel it was conveyed to our shores has 
never been satisfactorily ascertained. No doubt exists as to 
the fact of the disease being at that time in Holland ; but 
no foreign cattle were permitted to land in this country until 
after June, 1842. If, therefore, the assumption of its having 
been introduced from the Continent be admitted, it must be 
further assumed that the communication of infection was by 
indirect means. It sometimes happened that cattle which 
had been shipped for the use of passengers or crew on a 
voyage were disembarked in this country, and it is possible 
that the disease might have been thus conveyed to English 
stock ; but there is no reliable evidence to justify this con- 
clusion. One fact only in reference to its origin is incon- 
testable, viz. the prior existence of the malady on the Con- 
tinent ; but whether it was brought by individuals or sub- 
stances which had been in contact with infected foreign ani- 
mals, or by the accidental landing of a cow from a vessel 
which had recently left a port near to which the disease was 
raging ; or travelled westward to our land, in obedience to 
that unknown law which regulates the course of many epi- 
demic and epizootic diseases, cannot be determined ; and a 
