233 
Extracts from British and Foreign Journals. 
CATTLE DISEASES. 
To the Editor of the Times. 
Sir, —The state of the public mind at this time on the 
question of cattle disease and the supply of wholesome meat 
will, I trust, be a sufficient apology for my troubling you 
with this communication, and asking you to give it a place 
in your valuable columns. 
%/ 
Within the last week my attention was directed to a state¬ 
ment in one of the leading agricultural papers to the effect 
that the “lung disease” was on the increase in the London 
dairies, and that “ in the fertile vale of Aylesbury the disease 
has”—I quote the entire sentence —“ for three months been 
extremely prevalent, and the cases are generally of a severe 
and fatal character.” 
Feeling that these statements might have considerable 
weight just now, and believing from my previous informa¬ 
tion that they did not fairly represent the facts, I put 
myself in communication with several farmers, cattle-dealers, 
veterinary surgeons, dairymen, and others in London and its 
immediate neighbourhood; and I also wrote to the veteri¬ 
nary surgeon to the Yale of Aylesbury Cattle Association. 
The results are now before me, and I have the satisfaction 
of saying that my informants from the London district are 
almost unanimous in stating that the lung disease has not 
prevailed to any serious extent for several months, and that 
in many establishments it has had no existence at all; and, 
further, that in the isolated instances in which it has been 
present its virulence has been considerably diminished. 
My information from Aylesbury is even more conclusive 
on the point. My correspondent thus writes:—“With re¬ 
spect to pleuro-pneumonia—lung disease—possibly I cannot 
do better than give you extracts from my case-book, and 
forward with these a copy of the rules of our association, at 
the end of which you will find a list of the members with 
the numbers of the cattle insured within a radius of ten miles 
of the town of Aylesbury, no very inconsiderable number to 
form a conclusion as to the extent of disease of any kind.” 
tc Of cases of pleuro-pneumonia we had in May, 1863—3; 
June, 2; July, 12; August, 9; September, Jo; October, 3; 
xxxvu. 16 
