INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
623 
moist or dry atmosphere, or of a very variable condition of the 
weather, in the production of prevailing diseases, is a circum¬ 
stance far too lightly thought of by many practitioners. 
Not only in some seasons, but likewise at particular periods 
of the year, certain diseases are so frequently occurring as to 
call forth remarks even from the least observant. That many 
of the maladies of domesticated animals are dependant on 
the locality and soil they inhabit, as well as on the quantity 
and quality of their provender, all practitioners are ready to 
admit; but the immediate, as well as the ultimate, influence 
of the weather, in mitigating or increasing the effects of these 
local causes, is often too little regarded by them. 
For upwards of a year the fall of rain throughout the 
greater part of England has been remarkably small; so much 
so, that many agriculturists experienced the greatest diffi¬ 
culty in procuring a sufficiency of water, both last sum¬ 
mer and this, for their cattle, while that which was obtained 
was often of the worst kind possible for the maintenance of 
health, being charged with vegetable matters in a state of 
decay. From the same cause, also, the pasture lands at the 
latter part of the summer of last year were so scorched, that 
they yielded a very insufficient supply of herbage. The im¬ 
mediate result of this state of things was a great fall in the 
condition of cattle and sheep, which ill adapted them to 
withstand the privations and chilling blasts of winter; and 
the ultimate result the loss of hundreds of sheep during the 
winter, although the weather remained dry, and as such, 
according to ordinary experience, well suited for these ani¬ 
mals. Post-mortem examinations showed an emaciated state 
of the body, accompanied with local congestions, particularly 
of the lungs, as the direct cause of death. 
Next to sheep, young cattle suffered the most, the major 
part dying from diarrhoea, running on to dysentery. It is 
also worthy of note that in numerous cases, where persons 
by too generous feeding with oil-cake, mangel-wurzel, &c., 
attempted quickly to restore the loss of condition of their 
young stock, the animals fell a sacrifice to attacks of Juemato- 
sepsis, commonly called black quarter, or quarter garget, 
from a gangrenous condition of a considerable part of the 
body, due to a septic state of the blood. 
The past summer also has been remarkable both for its 
heat and dryness. The Observer newspaper of the third 
week in July, alluding to the subject, says that— 
“ For the last forty-six years it has not been so hot in the 
metropolis as during the last fortnight. All at once we seem 
to have passed into a tropical climate. For two or three 
