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of the outbreak till the end of the year 706 cows had been attacked, and of
these 025 had either died or been slaughtered on account of the plague.
There were only 274 cows altogether being kept in the parish, of which one
was ill with the plague.
What was done with the Diseased Cows ?
I have already stated that 625 cows died or were slaughtered on account of the
disease, and that a large number were sent from infected sheds early in the outbreak
for sale in the Metropolitan Cattle Market. A certain number of those sent to
market doubtless fouud their way into other sheds, carrying infection with them. I
know that this occurred in one instance in our parish, even after the Order of the
Privy Council was issued prohibiting sales of cattle unless for immediate slaughter.
There is reason to believe that this order was frequently evaded. Such cases came
to the notice of the Cattle Plague Commissioners. Again, a certain number, how
many it is impossible to ascertain, were assuredly sold to butchers, and the carcasses
came into consumption as human food. So long as the cowkeepers could obtain a
better price from the butcher than from the knacker, the existence of disease in the
beast sold was not too curiously inquired into. Even after your special Inspectors
were appointed, two striking instances of the facility with which diseased beasts
were disposed of to the butcher came under Mr. Murray's notice.* It certainly is
a significant fact that out of Oil cows which died or were slaughtered for disease up
to the end of November, not more than 77 were received at the several knackeries
at Belle Isle. In fact, up to the end of November the knackeries-and boiling-houses
there only received from all parts of London 003 beasts dead and alive. There was
a great deal of difficulty at one time in disposing of the diseased carcasses at the
Belle Isle establishments in consequence of the inadequacy of the means of destruction.
In one of the establishments (Ford's) at the early part of September,
heaps of putrefying carcasses and barrels full of refuse and maggots were accumulated
in the yard, and at Atchelor's over 50 diseased carcasses of cows were interred in a
vacant piece of ground upon the premises.
Cause of the Disease.
That the disease arises through the introduction of a specific poison generated in
the system of an animal previously diseased, and given off from its frame by the
usual exhalations, and present in the excretions and secretions, and existing in a
special manner in the manure is a fact now to be regarded as thoroughly established.
That it either arose in the first place, or subsequently in any unwholesome
condition of the London cow-sheds is a view which cannot be held for one
moment in the face of my own observations. The two earliest instances of the
disease in Islington were met with in two of the very cleanest, best ventilated,
and best managed sheds in the parish, viz.: Nicholl's and Dennison's new shed;
at Harvey's the cows first attacked were those in his large new shed, those in
* See 2nd Rport of Commissioners, p. 2½.