77 8 SALE AND TRANSPORT OF CATTLE. 
expense of such inspection would probably be greater than 
the country would submit to. Inspection, too, would infal¬ 
libly break down where it would be most wanted—at such 
great fairs as Weyhill, Ballinasloe, or Falkirk Tryst, where 
the number of animals collected together was so enormous— 
the sheep at Ballinasloe amounted to 70,000—as to render 
real inspection an impossibility. The whole system of legal 
regulation rested on inspection, and no one had yet suggested 
a practical way of dealing with the inspection of living- 
animals ; while those in the trade now state that they would 
place no value either on the inspection or the opinion of the 
inspector, and, in fact, scout the whole thing as an absurdity. 
Next in importance was the separation of infected from 
healthy cattle—that was, indeed, a cardinal point. Farmers, 
however, would never tolerate the interference of inspectors 
and constables on their own farms. Moreover, “ unenclosed 
land ” meant all the Highlands of Scotland, half of Ireland, 
and large districts in Cumberland, Westmoreland, Norfolk, 
Wiltshire, and Hampshire. After some further criticism 
adverse to various provisions in the bill, chiefly on the 
ground that they were unworkable, and that they would 
seriously injure the trade in cattle without preventing the 
spread of disease, Captain O’Brien proceeded as follows :— 
The foot-and-mouth disease is so catching that precautions 
by Act of Parliament against its spreading are vain. Being 
easily cured, the general opinion is that it should be left to 
the owners of the stock, whose pecuniary interest it is to 
take the best measures medical skill can devise to arrest the 
disorder. Pleuro-pneumonia, though not so prevalent, is far 
more fatal. With fat cattle the best and cheapest remedy is 
the knife the moment the disease appears, when the animal is 
not yet reduced in flesh, and while the meat is still good and 
wholesome, and will bring a fair price. If, as proposed, the 
sale of such meat had been prohibited, it would have been 
impossible to have got rid of the animals, and a great impulse 
would have been given to the spread of the disorder. Lean 
beasts present a difficulty. The only thing to be done is to 
send for the veterinary surgeon. There is little fear of their 
being sent to market, as one diseased beast would injure the 
sale of the whole lot, and possibly those of the owner on 
future occasions. The example of foreign countries is far 
from conclusive, especially as, in point of fact, their elaborate 
system of regulations had failed to stop the spread of pleuro¬ 
pneumonia. Mr. John Honck, a large importer of foreign 
cattle, said that in Slesvig and Holstein, where the govern¬ 
ment had really taken the matter in hand, the remedy was 
