AT THE LONDON FARMERS’ CLUB. 
693 
affects this question 1 It has, I think, a good deal to do with the 
disease; for although it may appear that by crossing with a supe- 
rior animal you will produce an animal of a superior shape, yet 
the first point to be considered is not the shape but the animal life; 
the form is but a secondary matter. I think this is borne out, in 
some measure, by the fact of the disease having gone on so long, 
and at a period when our flocks and herds were, in the main, ar- 
riving at a much greater approach to perfection than they had ever 
attained before. It is, indeed, true that our highest breeds, taking 
them altogether, have been most free from the disease ; but this is 
accounted for by the fact that more care has been taken of them, 
that they have been kept in greater comfort. This has, in a great 
measure, counteracted the debilitating causes which have operated 
in other cases. If an animal were left in the state of nature, 
where there was a wide range for it to roam over, you would inva- 
riably find that in cold or wet weather it would seek some sheltered 
spot ; but an animal which is confined by hedges and fences 
cannot do this, and consequently is placed in an inferior position. 
Moreover, there is a disposition in animals to seek for different 
kinds of food at different periods: atone period you will find them 
disposed to crop trees, whereas at another they will not touch 
them. Diseases of an epidemic character are more prevalent in 
wet and marshy situations than in dry ones. You do not find the 
same amount of disease on high and dry lands as you do on low 
and marshy lands, and this difference arises from the fact that 
animals cannot bear wet and cold. The question of breeding in- 
and-in is one of great importance. Nature herself clearly points 
out that such a system ought not to be carried out to any great 
extent ; for if we look at things as they are, we shall scarcely 
ever find animals of the same family procreating together : gene- 
rally speaking, they separate, and in fact they have, except in a 
state of confinement, a repugnance towards each other. 
With regard to the condition of the animal in a diseased state, 
it is one of low fever, a want of animal life. The question to be 
considered is, how this is brought on ; whether by the peculiar 
state of the atmosphere, over which we have no control, and which 
we cannot properly understand, or by other causes over which we 
may exercise control. In the first instance, I was induced to be- 
lieve that it was communicated through the air ; but in what way 
I felt that it was impossible to determine. In many instances, the 
food on which the animals had to live has been blighted to a great 
extent. I have seen the blight extending for miles together. It 
is probable that the two causes went on operating at the same 
time ; in other words, that there vas a predisposition in the animal, 
arising from causes which existed in the atmosphere ; while this 
