REPORT ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 
99 
pily they proved of essential service in so doing. By the 
expiration of the third year from the outbreak, scarcely an 
instance of the disease could be met with in any part of the 
country, and this notwithstanding tens of thousands of ani- 
mals were, to our own knowledge, affected in the year suc- 
ceeding its introduction. From the time of its subsidence 
in 1850 until now, we have been perfectly exempt from cases 
of smallpox. 
This short historical account of epizootic affections of 
cattle, in this country, brings us down to the present period, 
and to the especial subject of this report. 
It was during the latter part of the past year that the 
public mind became much excited by frequent and almost 
continuous reports that a malady of a most fatal description 
had shown itself among the cattle on the Continent, and that 
it was rapidly extending towards those countries whence we 
received our chief importations, in the early part of the 
present year, the subject assumed so much practical impor- 
tance, that the attention of Parliament was directed to it on 
two or three different occasions. Her Majesty^s Govern- 
ment, it was found, had early given instructions for our 
Consuls abroad to collect all the information they possibly 
could in their several localities, and to transmit the particulars 
of their inquiries without delay to the Minister of Foreign 
Affairs. These despatches were from time to time forwarded 
by Lord Clarendon to the Council of the Royal Agricultural 
Society, who also had from the beginning taken the liveliest 
interest in the matter, and who lost no opportunity of placing 
the latest information before the country through the weekly 
publication of their proceedings. The official documents, 
however, in no way tended to allay public apprehensions, but 
rather, on the contrary, to increase them, as it was distinctly 
stated that the “ murrain” was rapidly making its way west- 
ward from the countries where it had been first observed, 
and that it would ere long be introduced here unless the 
greatest caution was exercised in regulating our supply of 
foreign cattle ; and that even then it was more than probable 
the disease would come in, it being said that it could be 
carried from place to place by skins, hoofs, or horns, or indeed 
anything which had been exposed to the infection by being 
brought near to the diseased animals. 
Notwithstanding the great amount of information which 
was supplied by our Consuls, but very little of a satisfactory 
kind could be obtained with reference to the true pathology 
of the disease. The Council of the Royal Agricultural 
Society therefore felt that under such circumstances as these 
