Page 3 Advertisements Column 1

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 21, 20 January 1863, Page 3

PREVENTION BETTER THAN" CURE. (From the Agricultural Gazette.) i [The following! remarks relating especially to pleuro-pnenmoniii, : apply, nevertheless, to ! smallpox in sheep; and we extract them there- , fore from Mr. Gaingee's lately jjublished > work.*] ' The groat essential in attempting to mitigate ' losses amongst stockowners is to study the means " of prevention. On this point we have been very de--1 ficient in Great Britain, not only as regards the ! epizootic lung disease, but other forms of cattle 5 murrain. These imported plagues in pooler countries than ' ours, lead governments to establish cordons mill- > taires, to slaughter and bury diseased animals, and compensate, individuals for their loss. The whole country is under careful inspection, and persons are bound to roport'tho appearances of a ' contagious disease, or submit to the infliction of a ' severe penalty. Such measures .would. not find favor here ; but are wo to fly to the other extreme, to continue from one year's end to the other with- " out perceptible abatement in themortality amongst our cattle, and not only to manifest the greatest ' carelessness regarding tho presence of contagious disorders, but to favor their spread by permitting > frauds of the vilest description. • Afarmcrgocstothe market andhuys alotof lean 3 cattle ; shortly after purchase, pleuro-pneumonia ' breaks out, and as the condition of the animals * prevent a good price being obtained from the butcher, he sends the whole to fciio market again, knowing them to be unsound, ahd cither the lot is transferred to another farm, or sold to a number 3 of purchasers. I have been asked, -when the dis- > ease Jias broken out amongst a lot of yearlings, * whether they should be sold at once or chanced. The law fakes no cognizance of such a case, the * practice is advocated and carried out by those who, in ordinary transactions, are scrupulously honest, * and yet if you probe the mailer you cannot but 1 admit that the person selling a lot of loan cattle affected with a spreading malady, though perhaps ■ only in the stage of iucubationj is defrauding the : purchaser and the nation. Some may find relief l ° under the ajsurd supposition that, diseases are not catching; but if any such individual is crossquestioned it will be found that ho would not have sold the cattle had lie not believed that the whole were in imminent danger, and that the majority 1 must die. But there is another way in which the owner of diseased animals is permitted to spread contagion. ' Ho is allowed to send them by railway, to entrust them to a salesman, and to expose them amongst } healthy cattle that are to be transferred to different ' parts of the country for grazing purposes. Pat or not fat, they are exposed without restriction, and ' any amount of good stock may be contaminated.. 1 A dairyman in town has a cow taken seriously ill. A number of hungry fleshers are ready for her at a ' good sum, but in order to cause keen competition, r the poor animal is walked into the public market, and stands with a number like herself amongst ' store animals. Such a practice is as reck- ' less and horrible, as if a patient with small- ' pox were placed amongst a lot of non- . vaccinated people for hours together; and the healthy cows just fresh from the country are especially prone to imbibe a deadly virus. lam conversant wilh another evil demanding instant Suppression. A cow dealer may buy a fine lot of healthy cows for the town. They are trucked and somewhere near their destination a truck, containing diseased animals, is attached to the * train. I knew an instance of a dealer, who, with [ three large trucks full of line English cows, had, on reaching Carslairs, to submit to their being i placed behind a lot of three suffering from thclung [ disease; Imagine how favorable tho breeze and the proximity of those animals to spread conta- , giou ! It should be a standing rule that every cattle-truck should I;e washed thoroughly, and sprinkled with an antiseptic substance, before other cattle are exposed in it. There are animal poisons such as that of epizootic aphtha, which may bo , found to adhere to places, and spread disease with the greatest certainty. The home trade in diseased cattle is sufficient to ? keep up for an indefinite period of time pleuro pneumonia in a country like our own, but I have specially alluded, in the Edinburgh Veterinary .Review to the necessity for legislation to prevent the constant importation cf diseased cattle from foreign lands. In the June number for the current year, I stale: — Free tvr.de may have its disadvantages. The impetus it gave twenty-five years ago to the cattle trade led to the introduction of much disease on British soil, and unless some iuilucutial men will take an interest in this subject and exert themselves for the common good, we shall cuutimie to import disease, and lose millions by such importations. In an article on pleuropneumonia in Holland, which appeared in our last number, and the facts of which were gleaned from ' a blue book,, it is shown how extensively that country is swept by cattle plagues, whence wo chiefly obtain foreign store cattle for our dairies or for feeding purposes. If our imports of live cattle vary from 30,0U0 to 60,000 per annum, it is evident that there is a wide field for the contamination of ouv home stock, and this is facilitated, lstly, by the wants of the country throughout its whoie length and breadth; 2ndly, by the totally unchecked trade in diseased animals ; 3rdly, by the absence of all proper means to detect and counteract disease. If thousands of men were landed, from countries infected by yellow fever or other pestilence, and systematically communicated these amongst us, vigorous efl'urts would soon be made, and even quarantine enforced for our own. protection ; but we observe precisely such an occurrence as affecting our cattle, and as the country is wealthy enough not to be destroyed by it, the loss is tolerated, and no attention paid to the consequences of a most pernicious traffic! Free trade is surely not incompatible with an enlightened inquiry as to the countries which are clear of cattle-plagues, and those that arc suffering from them. We need not court a trade with that part, above all others in Europe, which is overrun with pleuro-pneumonia, and as fat cattle icady to slaughter are needed by us more than lean cattle and cows, which we can breed in such enormous numbers, and better than our neighbours, we do not see why some restrictions on the importation of cattle to be exposed amongst healthy stock here, should not be enforced; Can a Member not be found in Parliament to move in this matter? The subject is worthy the most anxious and careful study. It has been well proved that epizootics, like epidemics, disappear if permitted to do so, and if they arc not encouraged by facilitating contagion, &c. It is also easily demonstrated that the United Kingdom is naturally the most healthy portion of Europe, and in which cattle plagues are only scon as the result, (if importation. The very diseases which prove so destructive now, visited us last century, but trade was not so active, importations were few, and the disorders disappeared. The veterinary profession in this country has not hitherto turned its attention to the groat questions which affect our national prosperity, and which are ,purolv veterinary in their nature. Wo must do more than learn how to physic, blister and'ttpcrate : we must study prevention. This is the great field for future workers and for men of science, trained to the investigation of laws governing health and disease.

" *Our domestic Animals in Health and Dipen.sc." Second division. Organs of Circulation ;md Respiration. By John Giimgee, principal of tho Now Veternary College, Edinburgh ; Author of " Dairy Stork ;" " The Vctcrijiarinn's Vade-mecum," &c, &c. With numerous illustrations. Edin burgh : Thomas C. Jack, 02, Princes-street. London : Hamilton, Adams & Co.