780 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
another accession of disease occurred, and apprehensions were 
entertained that it would again spread; but the introduction 
of cattle plague early in the year led to energetic action on the 
part of the authorities, and the enforcement of restrictions on 
the movement of animals all over the country had the effect 
of arresting the progress of foot-and-mouth disease to a 
considerable extent; the provisions of the Contagious Dis¬ 
ease (Animals) Act of 1878 have been further effectual in 
keeping the malady in check, and for the last few months 
we have been as nearly as possible free. 
As usually happens in cases of the reappearance of a con¬ 
tagious disorder, the connection between the point of origin 
and the attacks around it or distant from it cannot be traced 
with any certainty ; the facts, however, are suggestive. In 
August last animals affected with foot-and-mouth disease 
were landed at Deptford from France, where the affection 
prevails in a severe form, and in a few days it was detected 
in a London dairy. Other centres of disease were discovered 
in quick succession in Middlesex, Kent, Bedfordshire, Berk¬ 
shire and Herts. 
As to the channels through which infection might have 
been carried everything is left to conjecture, but a rational 
theory may be constructed in accordance with our knowledge 
of the laws which govern the disease. 
All risk of communications of foot-and-mouth disease from 
diseased to healthy animals is eliminated from the circum¬ 
stances of the case before us, because the animals which 
introduced the disease could not be removed from the landing: 
place alive; hut foot-and-mouth disease can he communi¬ 
cated by mediate contagion, and it is well known that 
dealers and drovers who are engaged at Deptford also pursue 
their calling in other markets, and in all places where 
animals are to be found. The man who is employed in contact 
with diseased cattle in the morning is occupied in the after¬ 
noon in driving a fat cow which he has taken from a dairy 
to a market or slaughterhouse, or his avocation leads him 
to take a railway journey to examine, and probably purchase, 
some cattle in the country. It is difficult to see how this 
