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49
staircase, up which the foul air of necessity ascends. It was not
quite clear in what manner the child first attacked contracted the
disease. The mother fancied a horse might have snorted the morbid
secretion from the nostrils on the child in her arms as she was going up
or down stairs, but it seemed more probable that the infection had been
conveyed in vitiated air. The second case may have been due to
contagion, for the young woman—a servant out of place, and not
long at home, had occasionally nursed the baby, whose neck was extensively
ulcerated. The father of the children had nothing to do
with the horses, and there was no reason to suppose that any member
of the family had been in contact with them or had approached
them nearer than the use of the staircase had rendered necessary.
I gave notice of the disease in the horses to the Privy Council
(Veterinary Department), to the Metropolitan Board of Works (the
"Local Authority" under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act,
1878), and to the Police. The premises were immediately visited
by the officers of the local authority, and on the following day three
horses were destroyed, and two others were destroyed subsequently.
The stables were disinfected and put under surveillance until all
danger of further spread of the disease was at an end. I also communicated
the death of the child to the Coroner for Western Middlesex,
who, however, did not deem it necessary to hold an inquest; but Dr.
Hardwicke, the Coroner for Central Middlesex, to whom I reported
the death of the second patient, at the hospital, appreciating the
importance of the case decided at once to hold an inquest.
Before stating the result of the enquiry it may be as well to refer to
the law relating to glanders and farcy, which is comprised in "The
Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878, and "The Animals' Order
of 1879, by Her Majesty's Privy Council"; the "Local Authority"
for all London, the City excepted, being, as already stated, the Metropolitan
Board of Works. By section 8 of the Order, horses are "deemed
to be animals" and "glanders and farcy to be diseases for the purposes"
of certain clauses of the Act, including clause 31, which makes it the
duty of the owner of a horse affected with glanders or farcy to give
immediate "notice" of the fact to the Police. The same clause requires
the owner to keep the diseased animal separate from animals not so
affected. Section 10 of the Order requires the Local Authority to