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offensive and defensive—We will guard our coasts, and man our fortifications for the 
protection of our property from imaginary foes who seldom appear, yet strange to say 
we leave our ports open—nay, give every facility for the entry of an enemy which next 
to war would paralyze the whole agricultural and commercial industries of the Coun¬ 
try. Gentlemen, this is no imaginary picture ; how often has such an invasion passed 
like a blight over the whole length and breadth of the British Isles, bringing ruin to 
hundreds of England’s best farmers, seriously curtailing her food resources and reduc¬ 
ing her working: classes to a state of semi-starvation. I am well aware that many will 
say of us, as was said of Professor John Gamgee, that we are alarmists, that the fears 
expressed are groundless, but I have little doubt if no protective measures are adopted, 
like him, we will see the time when our rulers will wish they had listened to us, who at 
this centennial gathering humbly endeavored to point out their duty to the country, 
not to trifle with these diseases, but to take each step as will insure their own intro¬ 
duction into the country, an undertaking of little moment compared • with that of 
eradicating them once they are produced. 
Professor Gamgee in speaking of the diseases says : “The Epizootic disorders of 
cattle and sheep plagues, are traced invariably to the East. They spread entirely in 
the lines of communication established by war or trade between different countries, 
propagated by contagion, and contagion alone. Eocal causes influence their spread ; 
but a careful study of their many outbreaks in different countries, demonstrates that the 
local causes consist chiefly in circumstances, which render the spreading by contagion 
most certain. These diseases commit great ravages wherever they spread, and 
especially in countries like our own where their nature is ignored, and no means 
adopted for their prevention. They are kept in check and totally prevented in some 
countries, either from the circumstances that breeding is exclusively carried on in them, 
or in Virtue of wise laws which serve to protect the home produce from foreign im¬ 
portations.” 
That you may form some idea of the losses entailed by them by these diseases, I 
will read the following quotation from Mr. Fleming’s vluable work on Veterinary 
Sanitary Science, who says : “up to 1869 for the thirty yoars that had elapsed since the 
introduction of ’ the two contagious maladies, Foot-and Mouth disease and bovine 
Pleuro-pneumonia it was estimated that the loss from these alone amounted to 5,549, 
780, head of cattle roughly valued at £83,616,854, (or about $418,084,270). This is of 
course irrespective of Cattle Plague. There cannot be a doubt that the same rate of 
loss has continued, if it has not largely increased since that same period. In 1S72 for 
instance from one malady only, Foot-and-Mouth disease, it was calculated that the 
money loss in Britain must have amounted to £11,000,000, (or $65,000,000,) but some 
authorities are of the opinion that this is even under-estimated. In Ireland for the 
same year 220,570 cattle were reported by the police as affected by the disease, but 
this is undoubtedly only a tithe of the actual number, as a declaration of its existence is 
the exception, not the rule. Nevertheless, if we estimate the loss on each animal re¬ 
ported at £2, ($10) though it may be nearer £4, ($20) we have £441,140, (or $2,205, 
700) to be added to the above sum as the pecuniary loss incurred in the three Kingdoms 
from the existence of one preventable malady only. The damage inflicted by conta¬ 
gious Pleuro-pneumonia is probably not so much less as it is always prevalent; whereas 
the other is more diffused at some seasons that others.” 
These facts speak for themselves—and are sufficient to show the immensity of the 
losses entailed by these diseases in every country so unfortunate as to allow them to be 
