PLEURO-PNEUMONIA AND ITS RAVAGES IN EUROPE.

North Otago Times, Volume II, Issue 28, 1 September 1864, Page 3

PLEURO-PNEUMONIA AND ITS RAVAGES IN EUROPE.

The " London Observer," in an article on the pi oposod legislation relative to ca , tic importation, makes the foliouii.g n marks : — '•As regards tlie 'Bill to prevent Inf-ctious Disc tses among Cattle,' whon Youatt composed his woik on cattle, nothing was known of the infectious, bovinemalady called pleuro-pneumonia in this country. Tlie 'question naturally aiiscs, what has induced it ? Am ilignant lung disease, peculiar to the o\, of a highly contagious chaiacter, has long been common in certain parts of Europe, and has caused terrible ravages during the present eenturv in Switzerland, Suabia, Upncr Silesia, and Hungary. Even so lateas 18.35-G the viiter witnessed feaiful destruction among the cattle, both in the countiies wateied by the l")nnubj and the Rhine; while in Fiance the disease periodicall. attainsama_rnituile which it is diffienlt to account for, especially when we consider her pretended skill in tieating it, which mm'c f s alv loss upon her al.nost annually. The same remaik will apj)ly to Holland, Belgium, and the northern states of' Europe ; though the disease appears under a milder aspect^in the latter than in the west or the south. The fir&t appearance of the disease in England, according , to Professor Ga'ngee, was in 1812. when it was imported fiom Holland. Twehe months after it spread into Scotland by cattle sold at All-Hallow Fair, and, a short period after, some cattle, imported as far north as Inverness, took the disease. It was also introduced into the United States fiom Holland, a Mr Chenery Belmont having purchased f.nr Dutch cows, three of -nhieh yielded him apparently healthy cahes. In 1851. the French Government instituted a commission to inquire into the nature of pleuio-pnenmonia, the members of the eommision composing the most eminent uvuians and agiiculturibts in Fiance. The conclusions armed at. by these SA.vA\s was that the disea.se was CONTAGIOUS; that it attacks more readily and more severely nnimnls at the penod of partuiition, or during lactation; and that an animal intioduced intoa healthy stock, earn \n<z the dtsease, may be in perfect health apparently and in pood condition, but Iris usually acitain kind of cough, which can easily he detected by a skilful piactioner ns symptomatic of the disease. In pmp->i tion, likewise, as the animals are closely packed in a confined space will the stock most icadily take the disease. Stock, moreover, in high condition suffer a) sewirly as slock in low condition. It is a question, in fact, of more or less of a healthy vegnnen 111 the management of stock ; and whether at the homestead, or IN TRANSiru to maiket, e\ery sanitary precaution ought not to be adopted to prevent the spread of the disease. This fact will become still moie manifest when we look to our importations of foieign cattle—the origin of the disease in its present aggravated foiai —which we cannot possibly do without, miles* we aie prepaied to submit to almost fa , nine prices for butchers' meat."