SELECT COMMITTEE ON CONTAGIOUS DISEASES BILL. 467 
common causes which were in operation to produce it as an 
epizootic disease. 
4. Have you had any opportunities of observing any cases 
in which the disorder has been introduced into this country 
by the importation of cattle from abroad affected with it ? — 
I have not had any direct means of tracing infected animals 
into this country, and knowing how they were disposed of 
afterwards ; but I have reason to believe that many animals 
infected with pleuro-pneumonia have often been introduced 
into this country from Holland and contiguous states. 
5. And consequently that the amount of disorder in this 
country has been increased by those importations ? — 
Decidedly. 
6 . Do you think that has arisen from any want of precau- 
tion as to the regulation of the importation of foreign cattle, 
or do you think the character of the disease such as to render 
all precaution impossible? — Pleuro-pneumonia is a disease 
that is scarcely recognisable in the early stages of it, and 
consequently an animal may be affected, and the inspector 
who examines the animal for the Custom House, although 
efficient in the performance of his duties, may fail to detect 
if, from the insidious nature of the disease at the time the 
animal may be passed ; but in a few days the disease would 
assume a character that is unmistakeable. 
7. The disease may exist, but it is impossible for the in- 
spector to detect it at the time the beast is landed in this 
country ? — Just so. 
8. How long do you consider the disease may remain in 
that latent state as not to be discoverable by examination?. — 
In this special disease a week or ten days may elapse, or 
longer. It is an affection that frequently goes on very 
slowly and very stealthily. 
9- But you think that a week or ten days would always 
develop the disorder sufficiently, where it existed, to enable 
you to detect it? — Yes. 
10. Then some measure of quarantine would have the 
effect of preventing the introduction of diseased cattle? — 
Yes; but, in my opinion, there are many practical objections 
to the establishment of a quarantine. It must be borne in 
mind, that animals that are sent into this country are the 
property of different individuals. A ship’s cargo may there- 
fore belong to five or six persons ; some of those animals 
may have been exposed to the influence of a contagious 
disease, some may not. The consequence would be, that 
you must appoint separate places for each man’s stock ; 
because if, on the contrary, they are all put together, the 
