934 
THE VETERINARIAN, DECEMBER 1, 1870. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — C icero. 
THE TRANSIT OF ANIMALS BY SEA. 
Recent experience has convinced us of the impossibility 
of meeting the demands of sensitive people in reference to 
the amelioration of the hardships which seaborne cattle and 
other animals are doomed to suffer. By degrees all the 
vessels which are employed in the cattle trade are being 
fitted up in conformity with the Order of Council of May 
12th, which provides that places used for animals on board 
vessels shall be divided into pens of a convenient size, with 
sufficient footholds, and also that proper ventilation shall be 
secured if the place is enclosed. Freshly shorn sheep are 
not to be carried on the deck of a vessel during the in- 
clement season of the year. Gangways are to be provided, 
either betwen the pens or above them ; and all vessels are 
to be properly cleansed and disinfected after the close of 
each voyage. Food and water are to be supplied at all 
places where animals are shipped or unshipped, and proper 
provision is to be made at landing places for the convenient 
unshipment of them. In the majority of cases all the 
above essential arrangements for the comfort of animals 
have been carried out ; still we are reminded occasionally 
by a letter from some humane individual that the pathway 
from the pasture to the slaughter-house is not so smooth as 
it might be. Complaints of dire cruelty are yet uttered ; and 
propositions are tendered by well-meaning people who labour 
under the trifling disqualification of total ignorance of every 
phase of the subject upon which they feel it their duty to 
write. 
In order to escape a suspicion of indifference to animal 
suffering, we at once assert our desire to assist in every 
possible way all practicable reforms in the methods of con- 
veying animals to their final destination by sea or land ; but 
