666 
ANIMAL DISEASE IN NATAL. 
neighbouring colonies, but others amongst horses in private 
stables. 
Many of these cases may be prevented, and the spread of 
this disease checked, by proper care on the part of the 
owners, and by stricter regulations for its prevention being 
enforced. I beg to direct particular attention to this matter, 
because in more than one instance where I have met with 
bad cases, great carelessness was shown, and an inclination 
to keep the animal on the chance of its getting better, 
regardless of the well-known facts that it is very contagious 
as well as incurable. 
The horses of the mounted police have been compara¬ 
tively healthy during the time they have been under my 
notice at head-quarters, and few serious cases have occurred. 
I visited Estcourt twice to inquire into supposed out¬ 
breaks of glanders and farcy amongst the horses of the 
detachment stationed there; on one occasion meeting with a 
case of strangles, and on the other with a local disease, 
which yielded readily to treatment. 
A good many cases of sickness have occurred amongst the 
horses, mules, and cattle of the colonial engineer's depart¬ 
ment. The poverty to which the cattle were reduced last 
winter, as well as the prevalence of lung-sickness and other 
diseases amongst them (consequent on their being exposed 
to contagion on the roads and outspan places) brought a 
number under treatment, and it was only by careful feeding 
and general good management by the persons in charge of 
them that many were kept alive till there was sufficient 
grass to enable them to regain their condition. 
Amongst cattle there has been an immense amount of 
disease, and the losses very great. The sudden change from 
poor to rich succulent food in the spring, acting on animals 
weakened by poverty, induced those blood diseases which 
result from the introduction into the system of more nutri¬ 
tious matter than it is able to asssimilate, the consequence 
of which is seen in outbreaks of spon-sickness, melt-sick¬ 
ness, and other affections of a like nature. As far as I can 
learn, no adequate measures are adopted to prevent this by 
a liberal system of feeding during the winter—so rendering 
the change less abrupt and extreme—consequently the state 
of debility to which animals are reduced renders them very 
susceptible to disease. Lung-sickness has prevailed in 
many parts of the colony, and the losses from it have been 
unusually severe. I am unable to give statistics relating to 
it, but the losses of cattle which have come to my know¬ 
ledge lately represent a value of nearly two thousand 
