on a superior beast is no more costly than on an inferior
one, and the proportion of freight to sale price is therefore
less. With this superior description of butchers' stock all
classes of home-grown stock--good, bad and indifferent--have,
of course, to compete. The Board of Agriculture has the power
to close the ports of the United Kingdom against live animals
from any country in which contagious disease is known to
exist. This accounts for the circumstance that so few
countries--none of them in Europe--enjoy the privilege of
sending live animals to British ports. In 1900 the discovery
early in the year of the existence of foot-and-mouth disease
amongst cattle and sheep shipped from Argentina to the United
Kingdom led to the issue of an order by which all British
ports were closed against live animals from the country
named. This order came into force on the 30th of April, and
the result was a marked decline in the shipments of live cattle
and sheep from the River Plate, but a decided increase in the
quantity of frozen meat sent thence to the United Kingdom.
The last quarter of the 19th century witnessed an important
change in the attitude of public opinion towards legislative
control over the contagious diseases of animals. When, after
the introduction of cattle plague or rinderpest in 1865, the
proposal was made to resort to the extreme remedy of slaughter
in order to check the ravages of a disease which was pursuing
its course with ruinous results, the idea was received with
public indignation and denounced as barbarous. Views have
undergone profound modification since then, and the most
drastic remedy has come to be regarded as the most effective,
and in the long run the least costly. The Cattle Diseases
Prevention Act 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. 2) made compulsory the
slaughter of diseased cattle, and permitted the slaughter
of cattle which had been exposed to infection, compensation
being provided out of the rates. The Act 30 & 31 Vict. c.
125, 1867, is of historical interest, in that it contains
the first mention of pleuro-pneumonia, and the exposure in
any market of cattle suffering from that disease was made an
offence. The Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 1869 (32 & 33
Vict. c. 70) revoked all former acts, and defined disease to
mean cattle plague, pleuro-pneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease,
sheep-pox, sheep-scab and glanders, together with any disease
which the Privy Council might by order specify. The principle
of this act in regard to foreign animals was that of free
importation, with power for the Privy Council to prohibit or
subject to quarantine and slaughter, as circumstances seemed to
require. The act of 1869 was at that time the most complete
measure that had ever been passed for dealing with diseases of
animals. The re-introduction of cattle plague into England
in 1877 led to the passing of the Act 41 & 42 Vict. c. 74,
1878, which repealed the act of 1869, and affirmed as a
principle the landing of foreign animals for slaughter only,
though free importation or quarantine on the one hand and
prohibition on the other were provided for in exceptional
circumstances. By an order of council which came into
operation in December 1878, swine fever was declared to be
a disease for the purposes of the act of that year. It was
not, however, till October 1886 that anthrax and rabies were
officially declared to be contagious diseases for the purposes
of certain sections of the act of 1878. In 1884 the Act 47
& 48 Vict. c. 13 empowered the Privy Council to prohibit the
landing of animals from any country in respect of which the
circumstances were not such as to afford reasonable security
against the introduction of foot-and-mouth disease. After one
or two other measures of minor importance came the Act 53 &
54 Vict. c. 14, known as the Pleuro-pneumonia Act 1890, which
transferred the powers of local authorities to slaughter and
pay compensation in cases of pleuro-pneumonia to the Board of
Agriculture, and provided further for the payment of such
compensation out of money specifically voted by parliament.
This measure was regarded at the time as a marked step in
advance, and was only carried after a vigorous campaign in its
favour. In 1892 by the Act 55 & 56 Vict. c. 47 power was given
to the Board of Agriculture to use the sums voted on account
of pleuro-pneumonia for paying the costs involved in dealing
with foot-and-mouth disease; under this act the board could
order the slaughter of diseased animals and of animals in
contact with these, and could pay compensation for animals so
slaughtered. Under the provisions of the Contagious Diseases
(Animals) Act 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 43) swine fever in
Great Britain was, from the 1st of November in that year,
dealt with by the Board of Agriculture in the same way as
pleuro-pneumonia, the slaughter of infected swine being
carried out under directions from the central authority, and
compensation allowed from the imperial exchequer. In 1894 was
passed the Diseases of Animals Act (57 & 58 Vict. c. 57), the
word ``contagious'' being omitted from the title. This was a
measure to consolidate the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts
1878-1893. In it ``the expression `disease' means cattle
plague (that is to say, rinderpest, or the disease commonly
called cattle plague), contagious pleuro-pneumonia of
cattle (in this act called pleuro-pneumonia), foot-and-mouth
disease, sheep-pox, sheep-scab, or swine fever (that is to
say, the disease known as typhoid fever of swine, soldier
purples, red disease, hog cholera or swine plague).'' The
Diseases of Animals Act 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c. 15) rendered
compulsory the slaughter of imported live stock at the place
of landing, a boon for which British stock-breeders had
striven for many years. The ports in Great Britain at which
foreign animals may be landed are Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow,
Hull, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Animals from the Channel Islands may be landed at Southampton.
The Diseases of Animals.
Under the Diseases of Animals Acts 1894 and 1896 weekly
returns are issued by the Board of Agriculture of outbreaks of
anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, glanders (including farcy),
pleuro-pneumonia, rabies and swine fever in the counties of
Great Britain; also monthly returns of outbreaks of sheep-scab.
Cattle plague, or rinderpest, has not been recorded in Great
Britain since 1877. In that year there were 47 outbreaks
distributed over five counties and involving 263 head of cattle.
The course of foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain between
1877 and 1905 inclusive is told in Table XX., from which the
TABLE XX.--Outbreaks of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Great Britain,
1877-1905.
Animals attacked.
Out Other
Year. Counties. Breaks. Cattle. Sheep. Swine. Animals.
1877 55 858 5,640 7,405 2,099
1878 45 235 912 8,609 245
1879 29 137 261 15,681 5
1880 38 1,461 20,918 9,572 1,886 2
1881 49 4,833 59,484 117,152 6,330 80
1882 49 1,970 23,973 11,412 2,564 1
1883 75 18,732 219,289 217,492 24,332 32
1884 55 949 12,186 14,174 1,860 1
1885 10 30 354 34 30
1886 1 1 10
1892 15 95 1,248 3,412 107
1893 2 2 30
1894 3 3 7 261
1900 9 21 214 50 2
1901 3 12 43 626
1902 1 1 2 118
years 1887 to 1891, 1895 to 1899 and 1903 to 1905 inclusive are
omitted, because there was no outbreak during those periods. The
disease is seen to have attained its maximum virulence in 1883.
Sheep-scab is a loathsome skin disease due to an acarian
parasite. Table XXI. shows the number of outbreaks and the
number of counties over which they were distributed from 1877 to
1905. The recorded outbreaks were more numerous in the
decade of the 'nineties than in that of the 'eighties, though
possibly this may have been due to greater official activity
in the later period. The largest number of sheep attacked was
TABLE XXI.--Outbreaks of Sheep-Scab in Great Britain,
1877-1905.
Year. Counties. Outbreaks. Year. Counties. Outbreaks.
1877 77 3214 1890 75 1506
1880 70 1556 1895 88 3092
1885 69 1512 1900 78 1939
1905 73 918
68,715 (in 1877). It is compulsory on owners to notify
the authorities as to the existence of scab amongst their
sheep. By the Diseases of Animals Act(1903) powers to
prescribe the dipping of sheep, irrespective of the presence
or otherwise of sheep scab, were conferred upon the Board of
Agriculture. An inspector of the board or of the local
authority was by the same act authorized to enter premises
and examine sheep. Each year the disorder runs a similar
course, the outbreaks dwindling to a minimum in the summer
months, June to August, and attaining a maximum in the winter
months, December to February. It is chiefly in the ``flying''
flocks and not in the breeding flocks that the disease is
rife, and it is so easily communicable that a drove of
scab-infested sheep passing along a road may leave behind
them traces sufficient to set up the disorder in a drove of
healthy sheep that may follow. For its size and in relation
to its sheep population Wales harbours the disease to a far
greater extent than the other divisions of Great Britain.
The fatal disease known as anthrax did not form the
subject of official returns previous to the passing of
the Anthrax Order of 1886. Isolated outbreaks are of
common occurrence, and from the totals for Great Britain
given in Table XXII. it would appear that there is little
prospect of the eradication of this bacterial disorder.
Glanders (including farcy) was the subject during the twenty-four
years 1877-1900 of outbreaks in Great Britain ranging between
a minimum of 518 in 1877 and a maximum of 1657 in 1892; in
the former year 758 horses were attacked, and in the latter
3001. A recrudescence of the disease marked the closing years
of the 19th century, the outbreaks having been 748 in 1898,
853 in 1899 and 1119 in 1900. The counties of Great Britain
over which the annual outbreaks have been distributed have
ranged between 24 in 1890 and 52 in 1879. As a matter of fact,
TABLE XXII.--Outbreaks of Anthrax in Great Britain,
1895-1905.
Animals Attacked.
Year. Counties. Outbreaks. Cattle. Sheep. Swine. Horses.
1895 66 434 604 158 140 32
1896 64 488 632 34 200 38
1897 67 433 521 39 284 38
1898 73 556 634 22 161 39
1899 67 534 634 69 253 30
1900 74 571 668 40 204 44
1901 63 651 708 76 152 35
1902 71 678 746 50 192 44
1903 78 767 809 48 234 51
1904 77 1049 1115 62 365 47
1905 84 970 1001 53 210 53
