View report page

32
to one or two, so that a sufficient staff of skilful
inspectors may have the supervision of all imported
animals. It is likewise a matter for consideration
whether all steppe cattle, or cattle from suspected
districts, should not be subjected to quarantine, or
slaughtered at the place of importation. As far as
London is concerned, there would be no difficulty
in effecting this; in fact, it would be more convenient
to slaughter them at the Avharves where they
are landed, than at the private slaughter-houses to
which they must be driven after passing the
market. If this regulation were adopted, a better
class of transport vessels would 110 doubt be called
for, so that the cattle might reach us in good
condition, fit for slaughter; and then the dead
meat, instead of the living animals, would be sent
to the City markets.
Secondly—We have noticed that the disease is
frightfully contagions. The nature of the infectious
matter is not yet discovered, but it is, to use the
words of the Royal Commissioners, subtle, volatile,
and prolific in the highest degree. It is present
in a most virulent form in all the excretions from
the diseased animal. It may travel with the hides,
hoofs, horns, intestines, offal, and flesh of the dead
beast, as well as with the clothing of man and
animals. Like the materia morbi of other contagious
diseases, it is perhaps, what Dr. Beale lias