776 
Extracts from British and Foreign Journals. 
SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGRESS, YORK. 
Agricultural Section. 
THE SALE AND TRANSPORT OF CATTLE. 
The Rev. Dr. Burgess, of Chelsea, read a paper, written 
by Captain O'Brien, of the Mount, Y r ork, on u The Sale and 
Transport of Cattle. 5 ' In the outset of his paper he referred 
to the prevalence of panics about unwholesome food which 
came like gusts of wind across the minds of the British public. 
Among these he classed the reports and statistics recently 
circulated as to the frequency of fatal cases of pleuro-pneu- 
monia, and as to the foot-and-mouth disease being found in 
every parish. The trumpet of alarm, he said, was blown 
long and loud by a learned professor in Edinburgh ; and the 
excitement might be fairly described as approaching to panic, 
if the anecdote, given in evidence, were true, that, in the 
discussion of these matters in the Town Council of Edinburgh, 
an old gentleman, one of the magistrates, declared he believed 
that he was now breeding tapeworm himself. As a summary 
of the evidence given before the late Select Committee, the 
writer gave the following:—Pleuro-pneumonia appeared in 
this country about 1842. It spreads very rapidly, either by 
infection or contagion, and breaks out suddenly without 
apparent cause. It is intractable, and sometimes very fatal, 
carrying off occasionally three fourths of a herd. It is aggra¬ 
vated by local circumstances (the loss on cows in the town 
dairies being very great) and also by atmospheric conditions. 
It may remain latent for a month, and then suddenly develop 
itself and kill the animal in twenty-four hours. The foot- 
and-mouth disease appeared first in 1839. It is an eruptive 
fever; the gums, mouth, and tongue, are affected; the animal 
slavers at the mouth; the hoofs crack, bleed, and in bad cases 
actually come off. It is seldom fatal, and is easily cured, 
though it greatly reduces the condition of fat animals. It is 
an epidemic, and also extraordinarily infectious or conta¬ 
gious. It is incredibly prevalent, from one third to one half 
of all the animals at a fair being affected by it. It may 
remain latent for three weeks, and then be suddenly deve¬ 
loped by exposure to wet and cold, by change of weather, or 
by local causes. With dairy cows it produces an eruption on 
