ON THE EPIZOOTIC DISEASES OF CATTLE, &c. 219 
in materials for discussion so abundant, has, as might be natu- 
rally expected, occupied the attention of the profession no little, 
and excited discussion and elicited remarks to such a degree as 
requires no slight caution on my own part how I hazard my opi- 
nion, when so many of my more learned and elder brethren have 
already published theirs ; and yet, although I may seem to differ 
in degree from those accounted as authorities, whose dictum 
is law and all others deemed but folly, yet, in conformity with 
your request, I offer a few remarks. 
The visitation of 1842-3, so far as my observation has ex- 
tended, was attributable to the animals still retaining remains 
of the epizootic of 1840-1, although apparently outwardly quite 
recovered ; and who, when turned out into good and flush pas- 
tures, fed rapidly and shewed great increase of condition. This 
suddenly puffed up grassy state of the animal, when the action 
of the heart was still further excited by the increased temperature 
of an August sun, increased the predisposition of more speedily 
and more malignantly aggravating the disorder, as well as render- 
ing the lungs, which is the chief seat of the disease, less able to 
withstand a second attack. 
The next question is, Why has the disease shewn itself to so 
much greater extent among the imported Irish than among our own 
English or Scots ? and why the cases themselves have been much 
more severe in the former than in the latter ? I have given this 
point a very careful consideration ; and the more I think or make 
inquiry about it, the more convinced am I of the correctness of the 
fact, that the imported Irish, having previously suffered so much 
in the voyage over, and being afterwards over-travelled from fair 
to fair when labouring under the complaint, were literally worn 
down by fatigue and disease, thus augmenting the disorder 
twenty-fold before they came into the hands of the farmers or 
graziers in this country ; and, consequently, their enfeebled and 
way-worn constitutions were thus less able to oppose resistance 
to the attacks of this pestilence. The real losers were the buyers, 
and not the importers, who were the main instruments of aggra- 
vating the disease, by their gross neglect and want of feeling in 
hurrying the poor creatures so much about the country when worn 
out by travel and sickness, thereby entailing a serious loss to the 
community at large. 
Your’s very truly. 
Geo. Holmes, Y. S. 
