898 
DISEASES OF CATTLE IN lllELAND, 
Even when an animal dies—no matter of wliat disease— 
there are plenty of butchers ready to purchase the carcase, to 
sell to their customers. I think I may with truth assert that 
«/ 
no carcase is lost in this country; it always finds its way into 
the stomachs of Her Majesty^s subjects. 
Again, until practical men are appointed to act as inspec¬ 
tors in their several districts, I do not see what advantage is 
likelv to result from Orders in Council. 
_ •/ 
Fairs in Ireland are being held daily at some place or 
other, and it is in fairs that an inspector should be found. 
! In Ireland there five thousand one hundred and sixteen 
fairs held during the year. This seems incredible, but there 
is no difficulty of proving its correctness. This fact alone 
will afford a good idea as to the risk people run in purchasing 
animals at these places, as there must be a corresponding 
number of buyers and jobbers constantly trafficking in un¬ 
healthy as well as in healthy beasts. It has often surprised 
me that Ireland is so free from disease as she is ; this may be 
explained in part from the hardy manner in which the animals 
are reared. 
Ireland also is not so liable to contamination from the intro¬ 
duction of disease as many other parts of the empire. She 
is an exporting, and not an importing, country; but, never¬ 
theless she is, to a certain extent, subject to some of the 
evils which exist elsewhere. • 
If pleuro-pneumonia is a contagious disease, and the incu¬ 
bative stage extends from ten to forty days, and the highways 
upon which diseased animals travel are sources of danger to 
healthy cattle, it appears to me to be of little or no use to 
issue Orders which are well calculated to arrest the disease, 
unless proper provision is made for enforcing their require¬ 
ments. A want of this would lead us to conclude that the 
Council lacked faith in its own acts. 
As the cattle plague was vigorously attacked and got rid 
of, so also could the lung disease, if effective means were 
had recourse to. 
Speaking of cattle plague reminds me of a case I saw last 
year. A man came in a hurry to inform me that his cow 
had died of rinderpest, and requested me to see it. Upon 
examination of the internal structures I found that acute 
inflammation of the stomach and intestines was the cause of 
death. Another case to which I was called presented symp¬ 
toms so nearly allied to those of that truly dreadful malady, 
that had rinderpest been in the country I should have been 
inclined to view this case as one of that disease. I did not 
see the animal after death. 
