Departmental Committee on PI euro-pneumonia. 13 
points which the Committee decided to be indisputable were : 
(1) That pleuro-pneumonia is an imported disease and not 
indigenous to this country ; (2) that it is an incurable disease, 
and hence its treatment should be of a preventive and not of a 
curative nature ; (3) that the disease is communicated by con- 
tact between living animals only, and through the respiratory 
organs only, and not by the hands of any intermediate agent 
or by the dead carcass. 
On the strength of these conclusions the Committee made 
certain recommendations, and strongly urged upon the 
Government the necessity of adopting firm measures in 
relation to this disease. Naturally, from the evidence before 
them, they recommended compulsory slaughter of all diseased 
animals and all animals in contact. Further they urged the 
necessity of this work being undertaken by one central local 
government authority, instead of, as hitherto, by various dis- 
jointed local county authorities, who adopted different systems ; 
and they also emphasised most strongly the necessity of 
compensation being paid out of the imperial exchequer, as 
otherwise attempts at concealment were certain to arise. The 
Committee found an able champion in Mr. Henry Chaplin, the 
first President of the newly formed Board of Agriculture. 
In 1890 Mr. Chaplin carried a Bill which embodied the 
principal recommendations of the Committee, by transferring 
to the Board of Agriculture all the duties previously vested in 
the local authorities, with power to slaughter and pay compen- 
sation out of the imperial funds for all cattle affected, or which 
in the opinion of the Board had been exposed to infection, 
quite irrespective of district or locality. 
Thus Sir Jacob Wilson had the satisfaction of knowing that 
the cause for which he had fought for so many years was at 
last won, and of feeling that he had been the means of confer- 
ring an incalculable benefit upon his fellow agriculturists. It 
is no exaggeration to say that to him, more than to any other in- 
dividual, the British farmers of to-day owe the almost complete 
immunity of their flocks and herds from imported diseases. 
When the important post of Director of the Land Depart- 
ment of the Board of Agriculture, with which was coupled the 
position of Agricultural Adviser to the Board, became vacant, 
owing to the death of Sir James Caird in 1892, Mr. Chaplin 
offered the appointment to Sir Jacob Wilson, whose acceptance 
of it was most popular throughout the kingdom, since it was 
on all hands recognised that his wide and varied experience 
in all matters connected with agriculture rendered him 
particularly well qualified for the position. Shortly after his 
appointment Sir Jacob, when on a visit to Edinburgh in 
connection with his official duties, was entertained at a banquet 
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