WEST OF SCOTLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 431 
advising any very decided line of action. Not only did he believe that they 
were not justified in sending a lot of lean or half-fed auimals to market, to 
carry the disease further, but he found that this was often a ruinous pro¬ 
cedure for the person on whose farm the disease appears. He had 
recently had occasion to test a method which he first learnt from Professor 
Maffei, of Ferrara, a man of great skill and extensive experience, and which 
method has recently been claimed as original in France. This plan is yet 
under trial, but his experience was most favourable to it. He referred to 
killing animals absolutely diseased, and administering to all the others pre¬ 
parations of iron coupled with aromatics. He was recently consulted by 
Mr. John Simpson, farmer, Balmerino, Fife, who had a stock amounting to 
nine three-year-olds, and eleven two-year-olds in stalls feeding for the 
butcher, besides fourteen lean animals in the court, and five cows in the 
byre. The disease was imported on the farm by diseased cattle, and 
appeared first among the cows and then amongst the feeding stock, both fat 
and lean. The morning he visited the farm two of the fat animals were 
severely affected. Mr. Simpson wished to know if the stock had better be 
removed from the farm to make place for fresh animals to eat up his 
abundant supply of turnips and other food—whether he should send the 
whole to market or keep them on. Mr. Gamgee ordered the removal of 
the diseased, and at once commenced the iron treatment. Though cases 
had been occurring daily before, the disease was at once checked, and no 
case has been seen since. This important fact, though single, supported 
many others adduced by continental veterinarians. And the explanation of 
the modus operandi of the preventive is very simple, inasmuch as it 
strengthens the animal to withstand against a poison which may even be 
thrown out of the system without inducing the symptoms of the disease. 
It w r as entirely from the invigorating and health-giving power of the iron 
that it kept the malady in check. He advocated the most extensive trial 
of a system which was simple and probably the most effective yet 
suggested. 
Mr. Anderson alluded to Mr. Gamgee’s observation that habit was a pre- 
ventitive. He begged to stat^ + hat Mr. Harvey’s cattle were all young and 
fresh, thus taking the disease at once when placed with the affected animals, 
and afterwards escaping any relapse. 
Mr. Steele said that for the last fourteen or fifteen years he had seen 
much of the disease, but never on farms where the cattle were bred or bought 
from neighbours with great circumspection. He knew many places which 
by this means had remained quite free from the disease, whereas, wherever 
the disease appeared, it could be traced to market cattle. 
Mr. Robertson , of Greenock, said that he knew a whole district— 
Roseneath—where cattle were bred and not bought in, and no single case 
of the disease had ever been seen there. He wished to ask whether any¬ 
thing definite could be stated regarding the period which might elapse from 
the exposure of the animal to the influence of contagion and the manifesta¬ 
tion of the disease. 
Several speakers alluded to the variable length of the period of incuba¬ 
tion, which is most commonly about forty days, but may be extended in 
animals in vigorous health, and capable of withstanding the potent causes 
operating to disturb their systems. 
Mr. Bryce , of Stirling, alluded to the occurrence of chest affections in 
cold and damp byres, especially in new-built steadings ; and Mr. Steele 
referred to the great frequency of disorders of the chest in Ayrshire cows. 
This he attributed to the delicate nature of many of them, and to the 
weather they are exposed to. 
Mr. Anderson , of Glasgow, thought the predisposition to the lung 
