478 
THE VETERINARIAN, AUGUST 1, 1857. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. 
Cicero. 
THE PROCEEDINGS OP PARLIAMENT IN REFERENCE TO 
THE DISEASES OE CATTLE, &c. 
In our late inquiry into the existence and progress of 
epizootic and contagious diseases of cattle on the Continent, 
nothing struck us with more surprise than the severity of 
the measures which are adopted throughout Northern and 
Central Europe to prevent the extension of pleuro-pneumonia. 
These measures are founded on the belief that contagion is 
the chief, if not the only, cause of its spreading from one 
country to another, and the epizootic character of the 
affection appears to be entirely lost sight of. An opinion 
pretty generally prevails abroad that the disease reached 
England in consequence of the alteration of our tariff, and 
that if a high rate of duties had been continued, so as to 
prevent importations, our cattle would have been exempt 
from the malady. These opinions are also shared by some 
persons at home, although it has been distinctly stated, 
times without number, that pleuro-pneumonia had made 
considerable progress here before foreign cattle were admitted 
free of duty, and when consequently none were imported. 
On the Continent, where no restrictions are placed on cattle 
passing the frontier of a given country, so long as they are 
healthy and do not come from an infected district, a difficulty 
exists in tracing the outbreak of a disease to its true cause ; 
but this difficulty is entirely removed by our insular position, 
and when we can name the exact day the foreign cattle first 
arrived, and likewise pretty nearly the exact day that pleuro- 
pneumonia broke out, we are placed on Vantage ground in 
explaining a matter of this kind as compared with our conti- 
nental neighbours. A knowledge of such facts is indispensa- 
ble to successful legislation for the limitation of disease, and 
