EASTERN COUNTIES VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 877 
might be made even more useful than they had been by the free 
discussion of questions relating to the profession. Speaking of the 
foot and mouth disease, as it is popularly called, he remarked that 
after having been dormant for some three or four years, it again 
showed itself in June last. It was generally believed in Norfolk to 
have been introduced by foreign cattle landed at Blackwall, whence 
it had extended so that it now raged all over the country. The 
disease was a species of fever, causing eruption in the feet and 
mouth. It was generally believed to be propagated by infection 
from one animal to another, all domestic ruminants taking it readily. 
Its period of incubation was very short, from twelve hours to four 
or five days; the period of its duration varied, but was not really 
more than from seven to fourteen days, as far as the acute stages 
were concerned. Mr. Shipley remarked that the disease was most 
fatal to young calves and pigs. It was the most contagious of alt 
known diseases, and in consequence of the great loss of flesh by 
animals affected, the loss to the country was probably greater than 
that caused by the rinderpest. Various opinions were held as to 
animals being liable to attack a second time. 
He put the question to the members—Is it safe to drink the milk 
or to eat the flesh of animals affected with the disease? He recom¬ 
mended careful nursing of the animals under treatment, as their 
best means, in conjunction with proper medicine, of meeting the 
disease. Much might be done by keeping the animals strictly iso¬ 
lated, and he held that much also by the profession adopting pre¬ 
ventive measures. 
Mr. Shipley then referred at some length to the Contagious 
Diseases (Animals) Act, and the powers given to Inspectors by 
that Act. It was necessary, he remarked, that they should under¬ 
stand the whole routine of the Act. It would evidently give the 
Inspectors plenty to do, and the only question which was left in 
abeyance was how they were to be remunerated. Veterinary sur¬ 
geons should, he contended, stand up for their rights ; they would 
find it difficult at times to please both the owners and the local 
authority, and in fact any party but themselves. Still they must 
not shrink from their duty. As to the question of remuneration, 
he thought a fixed salary to each Inspector was preferable to pay¬ 
ment by fees as removing all cause for disputes. They should 
remember that pretty well the whole responsibility of the working 
of the Act would rest upon their shoulders, and if they formed an 
erroneous judgment they would hereafter hear of it; and it, there¬ 
fore, became their duty to exercise great care in all they did under 
the Act. 
Mr, Shipley, having concluded his address, called attention to a 
series of resolutions which had been agreed to by the magistrates at 
Chester, by which they appointed the police as Inspectors under 
the Contagious Diseases Act, providing for veterinary surgeons to 
be called in by the Inspectors, and paid at the usual terms of their 
practice. The police, as Inspectors, were also to issue licences 
under the Act. He put to the meeting whether it was intended by 
