842 
SMALLPOX OF SHEEP. 
A correspondent writing from the Midland Counties says, 
that the manner in which the Act of Parliament is carried 
out is perfectly useless in checking the progress of the 
disease. “ The police sign certificates to move stock from 
infected premises without going near to them for several 
days, and when an officer visits a farm on which the disease 
has been reported to exist, he often leaves the farmer to act 
as his own inspector, receiving from him an account of the 
number of animals suffering from the malady, and other par- 
ticulars which ought to be personally investigated. If the 
present system is to be continued by the local authority, the 
sooner the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act becomes a 
dead letter the better.” 
PLEUEO-PNEUMONIA. 
The information received respecting this disease is to the 
effect that it prevails to a very great extent in the metropoli- 
tan dairies, although few cases are reported, the dairyman 
taking good care to prevent it being known that his cows are 
other than in a healthy condition. 
Occasionally an animal is sent to the knacker’s, but only 
when it is feared that an attempt to dispose of the carcase for 
human food might be attended with fine or imprisonment. 
Besides the prevalence of pleuro-pneumonia in the dairies of 
London and other large towns, the malady prevails to a 
greater or less extent in twenty-three counties of England 
and Wales, and twelve in Scotland. 
SMALLPOX OF SHEEP. 
The forebodings relative to the spread of the sheep-pox on 
the Continent, and the increased risk of its introduction into 
Great Britain which we gave expression to in our last num- 
ber, have been fully realised. On October 4th the Customs 
Inspector detected the disease in a cargo of sheep — 248 — 
which arrived at Odam’s Wharf from Hamburg, in the “ Cos- 
mopolitan.” Fortunately at that time neither cattle nor 
sheep could leave the place of debarkation, as it had been set 
apart for the landing and slaughter of cattle, sheep, and 
goats brought from any port of France, or the North German 
Confederation. We have recent information to the effect 
that the malady is extending the area of its infection on the 
Continent, which alone is sufficient to show the propriety of 
issuing the Order of Council referred to. 
