730 MORTALITY AMONG CATTLE AT THE CAPE. 
that the disease is contagious is contradicted by the experi- 
ence and observations of others. It is, however, strongly 
insisted on by the leading medical men and cattle breeders in 
the Cape colony. Inoculation appears to be held by many 
as a perfect antidote ; "but the best that can be said of it is, 
that it acts as a divertent to the disease while existing in the 
cattle, in the same manner as a blister acts as a counter- 
irritant in inflammatory attacks of the human frame. Where, 
however, little attention can be given to cattle, owing to the 
paucity of servants, bleeding, purging, and separation of the 
diseased flock, seem to be the steps adopted by those most 
wise in the Cape. 
“ The demand for merchandize in the agricultural districts 
of the Cape colony and the border states has been consider- 
ably checked by the sickness which has so long and so 
extensively prevailed among the horses and eattle of the 
farmers. At the opening of the present session of the Cape 
Parliament, the Governor computed the number of deaths of 
live stock from this cause at 60,000 horses and 100,000 head 
of cattle, the value of which, at a moderate computation, 
cannot be less than between £400,000 and £500,000. A 
statistical return, published in the frontier papers, gives the 
following enumeration of the casualties by disease ; and this 
return was not quite complete for the whole of the past year, 
while, since that period, the additional losses sustained have 
greatly aggravated the calamity : 
Horse Sickness Casualties in 1855. 
Western division . . . 41,853 
Eastern division . . . 22,997 
64,850 
“ Of these there were 23,067 horses, 32,323 mares, and 
9460 foals. 
Lung Sickness Casualties. 
Western district . . . 21,720 
Eastern district . . . 71,073 
92,793 
“ Of these 33,077 were working oxen, 46,122 breeding cattle, 
&c., and 13,594 calves. 
“We have not before us the present statistics of the live 
stock in this colonial province of the empire, but the loss 
must bear a very large centesimal proportion to the whole 
