138 THE PREVAILING EPIDEMIC AMONGST CATTLE, &c. 
To the Editor of “ 'The Mark Lane Express .” 
Sir, — A t a time when the agricultural community are suffering 
so much from the ravages committed on their stock by this trouble- 
some pest, I have considered it a public duty to trouble you with 
a few observations relative to its history in this locality, its nature 
and treatment ; as in too many districts throughout the kingdom 
the farmer has not the services of a veterinary surgeon at his com- 
mand ; and I am only sorry my having professional engagements 
for the last three months have prevented me from doing it sooner. 
This disease is one sui generis , and, as far as my reading 
and observation go, has never prevailed in this kingdom before; 
therefore, to style it the murrain, or blain, is highly incorrect, and 
carries very erroneous ideas along with it, both as to its nature and 
treatment. It has been asserted that our continental neighbours 
have long been conversant with the disease, and consequently that 
it must have been imported into this country through the medium 
of stock purchased abroad. I very much question the correctness 
of this view, for, was it the fact, it must have naturally found its 
way among us long ago. 
1 have a vague idea that it w r as first perceived in the county of 
Norfolk ; and it would be conferring information of great value, if 
some of my professional brethren, or some of the eminent and 
talented agriculturists which that county boasts of, would, through 
the medium of your valuable journal, afford us correct data relative 
to this point. We have reason to believe that my friend, Mr. Youatt, 
will concentrate and mould into a proper form every thing worthy 
of the history, nature, and treatment of this epidemic as communi- 
cated to him by his veterinary brethren. In his able hands we may 
rest assured full justice will be done the subject. 
When we reflect upon the series of unprecedented wet seasons 
we have experienced up to the spring of 1840, the consequent 
badness of fodder and grain, the saturated state of the earth with 
moisture, and the consequent decomposition of vegetable matter 
exhaling its poisonous miasma into the circumambient air — when 
we also take into consideration the extreme fluctuations of barome- 
trical pressure, as well as the sudden transition of heat to cold, and 
vice versa, through the same period, all developing how very power- 
fully and extensively that mighty and irresistible disintegrating 
agent electricity, extends her sway over all the hidden and secret 
operations of nature in the great laboratory of our wise and bene- 
ficent Creator — we cannot feel surprised that disease and death, in 
every varied form, should be evolved in the poor fragile frames of 
the animal creation. 
It is of a highly contagious nature; so much so, that it was no 
uncommon occurrence to witness a herd of from thirty to sixty head 
