PLEURO-PNEUMONIA AND INOCULATION. 10 7 
necessary to inquire into the trustworthiness of the evidence 
given by Messrs. Pottie and Bruce. Mr. Pottie, it is stated, 
is a veterinary surgeon who, being appointed by the Govern¬ 
ment to accompany the Commissioners in their tour of 
inspection through the infected districts, and to report upon 
the disease, has good opportunities for gathering the opinions 
of the owners of animals affected regarding the disease. He 
states that in all cases he had advised owners to kill those 
cattle which were affected, and to inoculate all those that by 
any chance came in contact with cattle which were diseased. 
He states that where he had opportunities of close observation, 
the results of inoculation were most satisfactory. Only a 
few cattle had died from the effect of what he terms the 
natural disease—pleuro-pneumonia—since they w r ere inocu¬ 
lated, but some had died from inoculation, which he terms 
the artificial disease. The antecedents of this veterinary 
surgeon were thus brought out by the Committee during his 
examination. His experience of the disease in Scotland from 
the years 1855 to 1859 was very extensive, owing, he stated, 
to the disease being very virulent in Scotland during that 
period. In referring to the register of the members of the 
veterinary profession graduates of the Edinburgh Veterinary 
College, the name of John Pottie, Australia, appears as having 
graduated in the year 1858. It is therefore to be inferred 
that the knowledge acquired in Scotland was the result rather 
of observing the practice of Professor Dick than putting into 
practical use the knowledge acquired in the lecture and dis¬ 
secting halls and the visiting peregrinations of students with 
the principal of the college or with his highly esteemed 
assistant, the late John Barlow. 
He states that the disease w 7 as much more virulent in the 
Scotch dairies cattle than in the colony among bush cattle. 
The external symptoms were very much alike, but in the 
Scotch dairy stock the digestive organs were deranged, 'while 
from post-mortem examination of bush cattle it did not appear 
that such derangement existed. This statement may be 
taken as confirmatory of two deductions—either the exami¬ 
nations were not carefully made, or that the bush cattle 
examined had not died of pleuro-pneumonia. 
Mr. Pottie considers the disease to be infectious and con¬ 
tagious, it being capable of propagation through the air, and 
he states— 
“ I believe it is contagious, and this, I think, is proved by 
the fact, that by inoculation we can produce an artificial 
disease by means of the virus taken from a diseased animal. 
We cannot, so far as our experiments have been made, pro- 
