THE EPIDEMIC IN STOCK. 
697 
diseased animal has lain seems to be capable of producing the 
disease ; and this is, probably, the reason why some paddocks 
seem to be so very dangerous to travelling cattle. 
Many cases, and, of course, the earliest, cannot be traced to 
contagion, so that there must be some other cause or combina- 
tion of causes. To discover these would be of the highest im- 
portance, since it would, in all probability, enable us to suggest 
some means of prevention. But we have not discovered them ; 
and we must add this to the list of diseases, such as influenza, 
cholera, the plague, &c., which seem to be caused by some at- 
mospheric influence originally. 
In regard to the proper treatment of the disease, we can offer 
no useful suggestions, and we are even less sanguine than we 
were of being able to discover any. For as it is next to im- 
possible to say whether any animal has the disease or not till it 
is almost dead, so the treatment of animals which are only sus- 
pected of being diseased can lead to no useful result. In several 
instances we employed skilful persons to pick out from a flock 
in which some were unsound a diseased animal, but in no in- 
stance did we discover after death that a diseased one had been 
pitched upon. Now, if we had put these animals under treat- 
ment, guided by the opinion of men who were really well 
qualified to judge, we should have attributed their recovery to 
treatment, and not, as in fact it would have been, to their ori- 
ginal freedom from disease. And the duration of the disease is 
so short, and the attack so sudden and fatal, that after the dis- 
ease has shewn itself, there is no time for curative means. 
We have constantly found that deaths occur within four days 
after exposure to contagion ; and as there is always some longer 
or shorter latent period, this proves the extreme rapidity of its 
progress. In the case of the horse, given in the Appendix, it 
seemed well and was at work at nine o’clock, and was dead at 
half-past eleven. 
As cure seems almost beyond hope, it is the more desirable 
to limit the spread of the disease as much as possible, and for 
this purpose we recommend — 
1. That sheep, cattle, or horses which have travelled through 
or rested in places where others have died of this disease, be 
kept separate from all others for a few days, say fourteen, in 
order to discover whether any have caught the contagion. 
2. That when any one dies, its body should be consumed by 
fire on the spot on which it is found. 
3. That if moved for the purpose of being more conveniently 
burnt, the body should not be dragged along the ground ; and 
the spot on which it has lain should be chopped up and scorched, 
by making a fire on it. 
VOL. XXIV. 5 B 
