94 
REPORT ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 
missioners appointed by the Government, that in Notting- 
hamshire alone 40,000 head of cattle perished in six 
months, and in Cheshire upwards of 30,000 in the same 
space of time. 
By a special Act of Parliament, the King in Council was 
empowered to issue such orders as were deemed the most 
effective to arrest the progress of the pest. Instructions 
vrere thereupon given, 
1st. For the killing of all the infected animals, and bury- 
ing them entire with the skins on, “ slashed from head to 
tail,” that they might not be used for the purpose of the 
manufacturer. 
2d. For the burning of all the hay and straw used about 
the animals. 
3d. For the cleaning and fumigating the sheds, &c., and 
for no sound Cattle to be put in them for two months after 
the removal of the diseased. 
4th. For no recovered animal to be allowed to go near 
others for a month after its convalescence. 
3th. For no diseased cattle to be driven to fairs or markets, 
nor for the flesh to be used as food for dogs, &c. 
6th. For no healthy cattle to be removed from a farm where 
the disease had prevailed in less than a month after its dis- 
appearance. 
And, lastly, orders were issued for the notice of an out- 
break to be immediately sent by the farmers to either the 
constables, churchwardens, overseers, or the special inspec- 
tors appointed by the magistrates acting for the parish or 
district* The Government also undertook to pay forty 
shillings for every ox, bull, or covr which was killed, and 
ten shillings for every calf, with a corresponding price for 
their skins. 
Mr. Youatt, in his account of the disease, as published in 
the w^ork entitled c Cattle/ says, cc Of the propriety of this 
bonus for the destruction of infected cattle there cannot be 
a doubt, for there were numerous instances in which those 
who began to kill the sick as soon as the distemper appeared 
among their cattle, lost very few ; but others, who w^ould 
kill none until their own folly had made them wiser, did not 
save more than one out of ten.” 
Many difficulties were thrown in the w ay of carrying out 
the instructions, and not a few impositions were practised by 
some designing persons claiming the award for old and worn- 
out animals, as well as for those which w 7 ere suffering from 
totally different diseases. In this day, now that veterinary 
surgeons are practising in every part of the country, such 
