ON THK DISEASES OF CATTLE, &c. 677 
ing eight days, to the pagan gods, to appease their wrath and 
avert the disease. 
Tt will be needless for me to follow the spread of this disease, 
or to narrate to you the various times at which different parts of 
the continent of Europe suffered from such contagious affections, 
— that which more immediately concerns us is its appearance in 
Great Britain. 
Of its first introduction we have no very clear account left; but 
the second time this country was visited, it is said to have been 
either brought from Holland in 1745, by two white calves im- 
ported by a farmer near London, or by a tanner who had pur- 
chased some condemned hides in Zealand : however, one thing 
is certain, that its destructive effects were severely felt here, and 
hundreds of our cattle fell victims to its malignancy. I am of 
opinion, that had those who have written upon its history looked 
more to a vitiated state of the atmosphere floating in nebulae 
wafted to and fro by the currents , rather than to the influence of 
contagion as the cause by which this and many other affections 
are carried from place to place and from country to country , they 
would have more rationally and satisfactorily accounted for its 
wide spreading. I hold also, that the present epizootic, which 
still rages in many places in these islands, depends for its appear- 
ance here upon such a cause ; but, Gentlemen, do not understand 
from these remarks that I deny the power of contagion to produce 
disease. Most certainly not : 1 believe that epidemic affections 
receive fresh seeds or new vigour from the exhalations of these 
animals which already have become its victims. 
To consider at greater length, or to more fully enter into this 
alluring subject at the present time, would draw me from that 
with which I set out, namely, the history of cattle medicine ; and 
I therefore retrace my steps, first informing you, that to Dr. 
Layard, a physician, we are indebted for the best account of this 
disease: his Essay was published in the year 1747. Several other 
treatises likewise appeared about this time, and upon this subject; 
but all I have yet seen are the productions of the members of our 
elder sister science, namely, human medicine. 
From this period up to the establishment of the Veterinary Col- 
lege few writers appeared : among the most valuable are Mills on 
Cattle, and Downing. 
The author of the first-named book regrets the non-existence of 
an institution in this country similar to the veterinary school at 
Lyons, which had now been established many years under the 
patronage of royalty, and conducted by the celebrated Bourgelat 
He says, “Humanity is shocked at the barbarity and ignorance 
of the generality of f arriers, and it were greatly to be wished that 
VOL. XV. 4 Y 
