580 
Facts and Observations. 
PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN CATTLE AND SCAB IN SHEEP IN 
AUSTRALIA. 
By advices from Victoria we learn that for the past two 
years the colony has been suffering fearfully from pleuro¬ 
pneumonia, and whole hecatombs of infected and suspected 
cattle have been burned and destroyed. The scab is now 
rife among the sheep, and large slaughter is being executed 
among them. In the earlier part of the month of May a 
flock of 3780 was slain and burned at Burrumbang, on the 
Murray, eighty miles below Swanhill. 
PREVALENCE OE PARASITES. 
Dr. Spencer Cobbold is inclined to question the truth¬ 
fulness of the general opinion, that tame quadrupeds and 
others kept “ cribbed, cabined, and confined,” are much more 
troubled with parasites than those fortunate individuals who 
roam at large “ o’er hill and dale,” without any human being 
to molest them. So far as external parasites are concerned, 
he says it may possibly be true, yet even this he very much 
doubts; but as regards the frequency of internal parasites, 
he has satisfied himself of the erroneousness of the general 
belief. 
ROYAL SOCIETY EOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO 
ANIMALS. 
At the last meeting of the committee of this society, at 
which Mr. W. A. Mackinnon, M.P., presided, the secretary 
announced that the munificent sum of £1070 had been given 
expressly for the establishment of a society at Madrid for the 
suppression of cruelty to animals in Spain. A sub-committee 
was appointed to carry into effect the intentions of the donor. 
The society has already been instrumental in obtaining the 
interference of the Emperor of the French with the practice 
of vivisection, and has also assisted in forming upwards of 
thirty branch associations in the principal cities of the world, 
in addition to auxiliaries in the leading towns of the United 
Kingdom. 
