FOOT AND MOUTII DISEASE. 
69 
1841, requiring information respecting the extension of the 
disease, and the various conditions under which it appeared; 
the result of the inquiry was published in the Society's 
Journal for 1841. During the progress of the disease it 
was observed that animals of various kinds which were ex- 
posed to the infection suffered from its effects ; not only 
cattle, but also sheep and pigs were attacked, and in many 
instances poultry did not escape. Sheep were most severely 
attacked in the feet; and loss of the horny covering of one 
or more of the digits was not an uncommon occurrence ; 
after a market at Smithfield it was frequently necessary to 
sweep away the hoof which had sloughed off the feet of dis- 
eased sheep especially, but also occasionally of pigs and oxen 
while they were exposed for sale. 
The admission of foreign stock in 1842 was not attended 
with an increase in the number of attacks ; indeed it is fair 
to conclude that the malady declined from this time to 1845, 
when it again became prevalent. 
In Norfolk, where the infection first broke out among cattle, 
in 1839, it appears to have spread very rapidly in 1845 ; and 
in consequence of its existence St. Faith Fair was prohibited. 
Gradually, as in the first outbreak, the disease declined, 
notwithstanding that in March, 1846, the duty on foreign 
stock was removed, and a great increase in the number of 
imported animals was the immediate result. No accession of 
the mouth and foot complaint occurred until 1852, when it 
raged in various parts of the United Kingdom, appearing in 
isolated situations in a quite unaccountable manner. In two 
remarkable instances it was detected among cattle which had 
not been removed from the premises, in one case for several 
years, and in the other for many months. On one farm it 
attacked simultaneously ten cows, which had been for a long 
time kept quite remote from the other stock ; and on ano- 
ther farm nine miles distant, it appeared among some year- 
lings which were in the straw-yard, where they had been for 
some time. In neither case did the malady extend to other 
stock on the farm, owing probably to the strict isolation of 
the diseased animals ; nor at the time of the outbreak was 
the disease known to be prevalent in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of either homestead. 
Mouth and foot disease prevailed in a very severe form in 
the year 1861, and continued for some time ; in 1862 it was 
detected among cattle at the show of the Royal Agricultural 
Society at Battersea Park, a Bretonne bull being the first 
animal attacked. The affection spread very quickly, and the 
subsequent removal of animals from the show-yard to all 
