260 
THE VETERINARIAN, APRIL 1, 1873. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat.— Cicero. 
THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE 1 ON THE CATTLE DISEASES ACT. 
Out of the inquiry which is now proceeding before a special 
committee of the House of Commons good results may he 
expected to arise. In its present form the Act which was 
passed in 1869 for the purpose of dealing with contagious 
diseases of animals is open to objection principally on the 
ground of defective construction of some of its chief clauses. 
Doubtless very considerable powers are given to the Privy 
Council, hut they are limited precisely at the point where a 
limit cannot consistently be allowed, and hence the action of 
the veterinary profession has been fettered, when the interests 
of the country demanded that it should be most free. Cattle 
plague, sheep-pox, pleuro-pneumonia, and glanders, are dis¬ 
eases which, whenever they appear, ought to be extirpated 
by the employment of the severest measures of repression. 
Foot-and-mouth disease cannot be fairly placed in the same 
position as that occupied by the fatal maladies above named, 
and that it is not considered to be of so much consequence is 
proved by the well-known fact that the commonest precau¬ 
tions against its spread are frequently neglected. The evi¬ 
dence which has been given before the committee on this 
point is to the effect that far more stringent measures than 
any which have yet been tried, would be required to eradi¬ 
cate foot-and-mouth disease, and that in the absence of 
such regulations the alternative course would be to cease to 
1 The Committee consists of—Mr. James Barclay, Forfarshire; Mr. 
Jacob Bright, Manchester; Mr. P. Callan, Dundalk ; Mr. C. E. Cawley, 
Salford; Mr. Jas. Clay, Hull; Mr. J. Dent Dent, Scarborough; Right 
Hon. J. D. Dodson, East Sussex; Right Hon. W. E. Eorster, Bradford; 
Mr. W. Johnston, Belfast; Alderman A. Lusk, Finsbury; Mr. A. M. 
Kavanagh, Carlton Co.; Right Hon. W. Monsell, Limerick Co.; Right 
Hon. Lord R. Montagu, Huntingdonshire; Mr. D. M. O’Conor, Sligo; 
Mr. A. Pell, Leicestershire; Mr. C. S. Read, South Norfolk ; Mr. M. W. 
Ridley, North Northumberland; Sir. H. Sclwin-Ibbetson, West Essex; 
Mr. W. Tipping, Stockport. 
