SALE AND TRANSPORT OF CATTLE. 
777 
the teats, by which the milk is affected. The most horribl e 
of all cattle maladies are the parasitic diseases, caused and 
subsequently propagated by eating diseased meat, chiefly 
pork. Measly pork contains the embryos of tapeworms; 
and when these pass into the human body they develop into 
complete tapeworms. After some further remarks descriptive 
of the evidence as to the injury done by the trichina , a small 
worm, and also of what the writer termed “ the horrors of 
pig-feeding,” which were beyond belief, Captain O’Brien 
went on to quote a series of statistics produced in support of 
the bills introduced into Parliament last session, which have 
already been published, after which he gave an abstract of 
the leading provisions in these bills as originally introduced, 
and of the objections brought forward to the Cattle Diseases 
Prevention Bill by the Highland and Agricultural Society. 
He then went on to maintain that all the statistics which had 
been adduced must for the present be deemed wholly unre¬ 
liable as a basis for legislation, as both parties in the late 
controversy had proved that nothing could be more fallacious 
than their opponents’ facts except their figures. He passed 
over the whole subject of dead meat, including parasitic 
disorders, to come at once to the great question whether the 
meat of an animal affected by pleuro-pneumonia was or was 
not fit for human food. On this point he maintained that 
medical testimony absolutely unimpeachable placed beyond 
doubt that this meat, at all events in all but the latest stages 
of the disease, was perfectly fit for food. This fact was of 
the last importance, not only in reference to the public 
health—for this meat was used in every household-—but in 
regard to the spread of the disease. The bill was therefore 
not necessary on the ground of the public health. Still, it 
might be expedient as a means of preventing disease. Its 
general character certainly raised a presumption against it. 
It was a bill of restrictions and penalties, the effect of which, 
in the judgment of the men most competent to form a 
sound opinion, would have been to raise the price of meat 
25 per cent. The foundation of all measures for preventing 
the spread of disease among living animals must be in¬ 
spection, and the magnitude of the scale on which inspection 
must be established presented serious practical difficulties. 
The veterinary surgeons had no reliance on the butchers, the 
butchers had no confidence in any but themselves, and the 
largest salesman in London “ does not attach to veterinary 
evidence the importance he does to practical experience.” 
And yet the inspectors must be numerous, competent, above 
influence, and inspire confidence in their judgment. The 
xxxvii. 50 
