SCOTTISH METROPOLITAN VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 829 
Privy Council, and now we have the Act of 1878, which provides for 
compulsory slaughter aud isolation or restriction for fifty-six days. The 
profession knows well that even this time is too short for the object in 
view, and that a period of three months would at least be required. 
Alongside of this Act, and working in a manner hand in hand, comes 
Mr. Rutherford with a new idea, or rather an old one revived and clothed 
in a new form—inoculation. Mr. Rutherford, working against the pri¬ 
vate convictions of the cow-feeders, gained a footing which gradually 
spread, till now nearly one-half of the cows in Leith are under his care. 
Great credit is due to those cow-feeders who first put their animals under 
his knife. They nobly threw aside their prejudices and private opinions, 
and unreservedly put their stock under his care. The result of this, in 
my opinion, demonstrates the complete success of inoculation, which I 
will try to prove by statistics. At the last census in May we had in 
Leith 530 cows, and for the four years preceding the following were the 
numbers attacked with pleuro-pneumonia :—1874-75,155 ; 1875-76, 90; 
1876-77, 107 ; 1877-78, 90—showing an average of 110 cows brought to 
the slaughter-houses affected with this disease. This year only 38 were 
affected, the disease being confined to thirteen byres occupied by 138 
cows. I attribute even this heavy mortality to the carelessness or 
negligence of those who have accepted inoculation, as the delayed inocu¬ 
lating the new animals they purchased until, as they said, the disease 
would make its appearance. The byres in which inoculation is now per¬ 
formed were generally hotbeds of disease, but since then they have all 
been comparatively clear. In these byres last year there were out of a 
total of 60 cows, three failures from inoculation, and nine bought in 
beasts were affected. The remaining 26 were in byres where there had 
been no inoculation, and in which there were 78 cows. I do not at the 
present time give to inoculation a curative power, although it is some¬ 
what peculiar that where this disease comes into the cow shed, and in¬ 
oculation is successfully performed, you may with safety say that after 
the expiry of twenty days there will be no fresh case. We all know 
that the disease is a long time in the system before it is seen, even to the 
practical eye, but by the simple process of inoculation many a case is 
nipped in the bud. The Act of 1878 has signally failed in two, and if 
pleuro-pneumonia cannot arise spontaneously, in three instances. In 
the first and second cases there were 62 and 68 intervening days, and in 
the third case nearly six months. When Mr. Rutherford introduced 
inoculation into Edinburgh and Leith, I had under my notice, I think 
in all, 9 deaths by it, but by careful attention and experience, he reduced 
the risk to a minimum, and I have had no fatal case to record since 
January. I would seriously advise those who have not tried inoculation, 
and still suffer under this insidious disease, to give it a fair trial, and 
they will in a short time be enabled to say what others have done before, 
viz., that it would have been to their profit if they had taken advantage 
of this operation long ere this. I would also advise those who have 
taken advantage of inoculation, and are acquainted with its benefits, to 
continue the process even though their stock at the present time is 
healthy. Every fresh increase to their stock should be immediately in¬ 
oculated, and there will be no cause for complaint, as by that means they 
will for ever banish pleuro-pneumonia from their premises. I think it 
well becomes us, as an association of veterinary surgeons, to seriously 
study this subject, so that we may give out no uncertain sound as to the 
benefits to be derived from inoculation. We should also show the 
Legislature that instead of paring away at the outside they should strike 
deep at the root and make it compulsory that all stock in the United 
