100 
IMPORTATION OF AMERICAN CATTLE. 
Customs at the various ports to issue these certificates. Of 
course the Collectors should appoint competent veterinarians 
as their deputies to make the inspections and grant certificates. 
If this is neglected trouble is likely to ensue. It is no secret 
that one of the diseases against which the British Act is aimed 
—pleuro-pneumonia—has gained a footing in the dairies of 
New England and the Middle States, and in the absence of 
vigorous measures to suppress it, the disease is slowly working 
its way westward. Pleuro-pneumonia, in its early stages, is 
not a readily recognisable disease. An animal affected with 
it might easily pass unskilled eyes, and a short time after its 
arrival in Britain develop the disease in its contagious form. 
Uidess the inspection at the American ports is a rigorous one, 
sooner or later a diseased animal will find its way over, and 
in that event the English agricultural papers may be relied 
upon to make a hullabaloo about it. The Privy Council will 
then have no option except to order that American cattle be 
slaughtered at the port of landing, just as they have already 
ordered shall be the fate of cattle coming from any other 
country than Canada, the United States, the Scandinavian 
countries, Spain, and Portugal. The powers of the Privy 
Council would extend to absolutely prohibiting the importa¬ 
tion of American cattle altogether, just as they have directed 
as regards Austria, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Russia, Roumania, 
Montenegro, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, but we presume this 
power would not be willingly enforced. Sufficient danger, 
however, exists to make it advisable for the United States 
forthwith to pass a stringent law on the subject of the im¬ 
portation of cattle. There is still greater necessity that the 
State authorities should bestir themselves, and enact laws 
under which the smouldering embers of pestilence among 
their herds may be promptly stamped out. As long as con¬ 
tagious pleuro-pneumonia is permitted to exist among 
American cattle the export trade with England is resting on 
very insecure foundations. English experience has shown 
that the disease is one easily stamped out, and there is no 
reason why it should be permitted to exist. 
