REPORT ON PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN AUSTRALIA. (315 
authorities to be a c specific contagious fever, with extensive 
exudations into the chest and lungs.’ Professor Gamgee 
terms it a e malignant fever/ never known except following 
the movement of cattle. It was introduced into England in 
1842, into Australia in 1858, since which time it has flourished 
in the colonies, destroying cattle by thousands, and always 
spreading by contagion. These facts are so well known and 
established by the highest veterinary authorities in the world, 
that to quarantine cattle to prove a fact would be loss of 
time and money. A number of experiments as to the value 
of inoculation have already been tried in Europe and Great 
Britain ; in Germany and France the experiments were in 
favour of its value, and in the Netherlands compulsory inocu¬ 
lation is established. The veterinary authorities in England 
are still undecided as to the value of inoculation as a preven¬ 
tive, but practical men, such as owners of dairies in London 
and other large cities (places in which the contagion will 
remain for a long term), have practised inoculation for years. 
In the north of Britain a Mr. Rutherford has been inoculating 
with great success, and many of the veterinarians in Great 
Britain are now wavering in their opposition to the practice. 
Can I quote stronger proof of the value of inoculation than 
the practice of it by dairymen? At the Cape it has been 
practised successfully for years. In the colonies thousands 
of cattle are inoculated every year, and thousands are left 
uninoculated to disseminate the disease, as has been done 
and is still being done in the colony. Pleuro-pneumonia is 
never found in the province unless it has been carried by the 
movements of cattle. Professor Gamgee, in practising in¬ 
oculation, lost less than 1 per cent, out of the first 2000 
cattle inoculated in his earliest trials, and after seventeen 
years’ extensive practice, he also states that not once during 
that term has contagion from inoculated animals been 
witnessed. He is firm with many other celebrated vete¬ 
rinarians in belief of the efficacy of inoculation as a preventive 
against pleuro-pneumonia. There have been several meetings 
of veterinarians in Europe from time to time, and the opinions 
were in favour of inoculation. All veterinarians agree that 
medical treatment can do but little good. Professor Law 
says :—‘To preserve the sick is not less reprehensible than 
to preserve cattle suffering from rinderpest. As the poison 
is more subtle, and more diffusible through the atmosphere 
than the disease, it is hidden unsuspected for a greater length 
of time in the body of its victim; no treatment but the de¬ 
struction of the sick, isolation, and disinfection is of value. 
Inoculation has been and is practised by cattle-holders 
