The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-30 00:00:00

TIIE LAST EDITION of " THE SUN"
supplied as Awn as Published. containing all the
LA I'EST AIWS an 4 SPORTING INTELLIGENCS, by
1. W. HARRIS, NeAspaper Agent, 4, Blacliriars-road.
London, S.

Another Order in Council has been given respect-
ing the Cattle Plague, testifying to the importance
-71 TV hicli this subject has now assumed, and the neces-
sity that exists for active measures being resorted
to. The purport of this new decree is to the effect
that the said disorder has made its appearance
, . among sheep and lambs, and therefore the Lords of
her MAJESTY'S Privy Council order that it shall not
be lawful to remove any lambs, sheep, or the skin
of the sheep and lambs from Great Britain to Ire-
land. No doubt this precautionary measure is a
very wise one, as great additional distress would
inevitably come if by any means the malady
was introduced into that country. Too much care
cannot possibly be taken to prevent contagion, and
thus this new order will doubtless afford satisfaction
to many. A letter to the Times to-day, from
" S. G. 0.," contains some very unsatisfactory intel-
ligence respecting this all-prevailing theme of dis-
cussion just now. It is stated, and certainly',
experience seems to bear out the remarks, that some
atmospheric action, acting per se or in combination
with existing matters, whatever they may be, is at
work, " pestilentially affecting animal life." Not
only have sheep for some weeks past been afflicted
with a " typhoid disease," but a similar malady has
in many parts affected the pigs. The writer of this
letter does not believe that it is a wise thing
to destroy all the animals affected with the disease,
for the infection cannot thus be got rid of. The
public markets form, he says, and very truly, a most
prolific source of propagating the disease. The poor
beasts are driven in over-heated and tired, and
come into contact with others who have been packed
for hours in railway trucks without food or water,
and exposed to the sun. S. G. 0. also thinks that
new diseases are unlikely to occur, and that often
the same principles may apply to animals as to men,
with' due regard to difference in their economy of
life. "In cholera and in malignant typhus we
have morbid action, and disorganisation in excess—
a destructive excess ; in a less degree the animal
economy shows the same morbid tendency under
many other complaints." It is very certain that
the most simple methods are often the last to be
employed, and so in the management of animals ;
while over and over agaic we are informed upon the
best authority that the greatest cleanliness is desir-
able, but seldom is the practice witnessed. While
time is spent and arguments are expounded in dis-
cussing the prons and cons of this or that means
of cure, and the desirability of destroying the ani-
mals affected or not, little or no heed is paid to
those sanitary measures concerning which so much
depends. It has been said that these matters have
not so much to do with the case as some suppose,
because in these places where all possible advantages
of fresh air and cleanliness are enjoyed the disease
breaks out and terminates fatally. But it must be
borne in
mind
that if the disease resembles
" typhus," it is increased by the fatal agencies of
dirt and bad air, and thus the evil is propagated
in healthy places. At
any rate nothing can possibly
excuse any inattention in this respect lin the care of
animals, and it is only surprising _
that this or some
other plague has
not before affected the poor
animals who are so cruelly neglected and ill-used
in various ways. A Fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians also put his veto upon
the " indiscriminate slaughter" which prevails, and
which is, no doubt, being carried to excess, partly
because great ignorance prevails as to the right
cause of treatment, and because from inattention at
the first outbreak of the disease to separation be-
tween the healthy and the diseased, the malady
spreads until great alarm is excited. Thus mistakes
are made as to the loss occasioned by the disease
itself,_ and the difference is great between those who
die of it, and those who die after having imbibed it.
In' the letter of this member of the College of
Phy-
sicians it is stated that he visited a; cowshed where it
had been reported that one hundred out of one hun-