4&6 THE FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE IN AUSTRALIA. 
meeting should pass resolutions calling upon the Government to 
adopt measures to prevent the introduction of foreign stock for 
some time to come. 
Mr. Graham Mitchell said that the fact of diseased cattle having 
been carried by ships arriving at Sydney on several occasions 
during the last twelve months, several of the animals having died 
on the voyage, and others having been placed in quarantine, was a 
repeated warning not to be lost sight of by the stockowners of Vic¬ 
toria. From the Veterinarian and English agricultural journals it 
was found that terrible havoc had occurred amongst cattle, sheep, 
pigs, &c., from foot and mouth disease and pleuro-pneumonia. 
Foot and mouth disease had been known in England since 1839, 
but within the last two years it had assumed a more virulent form 
than previously known. The measures proposed by the meeting of 
stockowners of New South Wales would be tantamount to the total 
prohibition of importing stock. Quarantine regulations, however, 
similar to those in force in England, which applied to all the con¬ 
tagious diseases of animals at home and abroad, would, he presumed, 
answer the purpose in view. Foot and mouth disease affected the 
mucous membrane of the mouth, stomach, and intestines, and the 
delicate and finer portions of the skin between and around the 
hoofs, and in the udder in cows giving milk. In fully developed 
cases portions of the coverings of the tongue fell off, leaving the 
organ highly inflamed and intensely sensitive and painful. Ulcers 
were found in the intestinal mucous membrane, and diarrhoea was 
generally present. The distinctive symptoms were dribbling of 
saliva from the mouth, smacking of the lips, bloodshot and watery 
eyes, lameness, arching of the back, and disinclination to move. 
He trusted that stockowners would be alive to the danger that now 
threatened. Hitherto they had always shut their eyes to the warn¬ 
ings of the veterinary surgeons and the press, as in the matter of 
pleuro-pneumonia, but it would be insanity to suppose that when 
this foot and mouth disease was so rife in England, America, and 
India, there was no danger of its being established here. Total 
prohibition of the importation of stock would not do, but a three 
months’ quarantine might he insisted on. 
In reply to Mr. Kirk, 
Mr. Mitchell said he had seen the disease in sheep as well as 
cattle. Sheep, he considered, were as much liable to it as cattle. 
The fever ran its course in about ten days, and vesicles formed 
about the mouth, and there was lameness, suppuration of the 
joints, &c. The disease attacked every animal without exception, 
and children had been known to take it from drinking the milk of 
diseased cows. 
Mr. Robert M ( Dougall said he was in England a year and a half 
ago, and while there he paid particular attention to all matters 
relating to cattle. Foot and mouth disease was very prevalent 
amongst cattle, and he had every opportunity of observing its 
action. He was then of opinion that there was no danger of the 
disease being introduced here at all, from the fact that it developed 
