468 SELECT COMMITTEE ON CONTAGIOUS DISEASES BILL. 
object of a quarantine being to test the soundness or freedom 
of animals from disease, it is evident that, on the breaking 
out of the infection, you expose healthy stock to it, and 
great mischief would be done. Besides that, the period of 
time the cattle are kept must be indefinite; for the diseases 
to which animals are liable vary in their incubation. Then, 
these animals must be supplied with food; and when we 
take all these matters into consideration, a quarantine could 
never be established in a country like this. I think a qua- 
rantine would absolutely amount to a prohibition of animals 
being sent in. 
11. Do I understand you think that these difficulties will 
apply to cattle that have all come over in the same vessel 
from the same port ? — Yes. On the occasion of the intro- 
duction of some smallpox sheep, an affection which excited 
a great deal of public attention in this country, and led, I 
believe, to the passing of a special Act, it was well ascer- 
tained that very many of the sheep were perfectly healthy 
when put on board with the diseased, and that they came 
from healthy districts. Those animals, consequently, were 
quite fit to go into a market; and if a disease does not break 
out while the animals are on board ship, the whole would go 
to market; but if you establish a quarantine, and some of 
the animals have been exposed to the influence of smallpox, 
then healthy animals would be liable to take the infection 
from them. 
12. But would not the animal have been already liable to 
the infection from having been shut up so many days on 
board ship? — Notunless the disease had declared itself in 
some of them during the time they were on board ship. It 
is just possible, but not very probable, that such might be 
the case. For example, a very few hours suffice to bring 
over animals from Hamburg to Hull or to London, and of 
course importers Mould not put unhealthy animals on board. 
They believe at the time they put them on board they are in 
a state of health, and the period of time that these animals 
are usually on board may be insufficient for the disease to 
declare itself, because this is one of those diseases that is 
incubated in the system of an animal from nine to tuelve 
days. 
13. Why are you disposed to place such reliance on the 
disinclination of importers at Hamburg to put diseased cattle 
on ship board? — For this reason, that when they arrived in 
London those animals M ould be seized by the inspector, and 
Mould not be alloued to go into the dead-meat market at all, 
and there M ould be a direct loss on animals of that description. 
