View report page

38
ticular purposes, they could be easily disinfected by
means of a solution of chloride of lime. All these
operations might be performed in certain places set
apart for the purpose ; and with proper precautions
they need not be an annoyance to the neighbourhood.
All the subsequent Orders in Council, even to the
Consolidated Order of the 22nd of September, are
but repetitions or extensions of the first—giving
power to inspectors throughout the country to visit
healthy as well as infected localities, and incontinently
to dispose of any man's cattle. Cases are
on record where some of these inspectors—ignorant
alike of the general diseases of cattle as of this
special malady—have recklessly condemned even
healthy animals, as well as animals suffering from
a trifling ailment; and all this has been done
without a prospect of compensation. It is easy,
therefore, to understand how injuriously these
Orders in Council have operated; for they have so
alarmed the farmers and cowkeepers, that rather
than run the risk of loss by death or by the
equally decisive acts of the inspectors, they have
hurried off their cattle to the nearest market for
sale directly they have shown a sign of disease.
It is not possible to estimate the mischief which
has been done in this manner; but looking at the