The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-19 00:00:00

CASTLE DOUGLAS AND DUMFRIES.

The traffic receipts for the half year ending July
31 amount to £8,997, as against £8,218 in the cor-
responding half of last year, and after paying de-
benture interest, working expenses, and other claims,
the balance was £4,537, out of which the directors
recommend a dividend of 5 per cent. on the prefer-
ence stock, absorbing £1,693, and of 4s. 6d. per
share on the ordinary £lO shares, which would absorb
£2,689. The company had been amalgamated with
the Glasgow and South Western Company, and
the directors believed that the union would prove
beneficial to both companies and the public.

LEARNED PHILOLOGISTS.—The statementrecently
made in the newspapers that Prince Lucien Bona-
parte, the eminent linguist who resides in this country,
would conduct the proceedings at the Welsh Eisteddfod
now taking place at Aberystwith, turns out to have been
incorrect. At the meeting on Tuesday it was stated that
the cause of the absence of the Prince was indisposition,
and that his Imperial Highness was at that moment lying
at Torquay' in a very precarious state; but there were
others present who stoutly averred that the Prince had
made no promise whatever to be present, and that the
council simply gave out the announcement with a view to
increasing the number of visitors. It appears that last
June the Prince allowed himself to be nominated
one of the adjudicators on the principal (£100) prize offered
for competition, and that from this circumstance arose the
announcement of his intention to preside at the meeting.
The following is the letter from the Prince on the occasion
of his accepting the invitation to adjudicate :—" London,
June 22, 1865.—1 have perused with considerable atten-
tion the Welsh essays on the Origin of the English
Nation,' and I find all more or less weak in their arguments,
and not by any means coming up to the standard of mo-
dern mguistical science. I felt myself obliged, however
reluctantly, to decline recommending either of them for
the established '.
the whole of BrpilloLße.
writing, but, as far ans. I have not been able to read
tiannicus's' essay, owing to its bad
parts, I find no reason for not judge from. the intelligible
the prize,-Z,Laptlying to it, as well, the
exclusion from
his magni-
ficent Prince Lucien Bonaparte, so well known
Speaking
library of books on European dci)awlenclfsorl
a observetson
that a Scotch doctor of medicine of the name of Iv;
re-
cently died at Rome, leaving a collection of works, all
bearing upon the dialects of Eastern Europe, which sub-
ject ho had long made his special study. The Pope, hear-
ingurcthhaaste dMirt, andl7a tdsi:nt;busi familyte desired to sell the library,
thep books among the different
public libraries of Rome, including the Vatican.
I ADTERTISEMENTI Holloway's Pills.— Remedy and
Regimen.—The most serious subject on which man can
meditate is the maintenance of good health in himself and
in the dear ones around him. Whenever and wherever
illness assails us it always sends before it unmistakeable
symptoms of its approach ; subdue these by Holloway's
corrective and purifying medicine, aided by a plain, simple,
digastible diet, and the attack deprived of its powerful
allies within the body passes harmlessly by; pain, discom-
fort, and danger are alike averted, and when epidemics
rage whole households aro spared a mournful visitation.
Disease is always occurring at all hours of the day—at all
seasons of the year; prudence, therefore, gives the warn-
ing to keep this remedy ready to remove instantly defective
actions.

Cattle Disease.

DEPUTATION TO THE LORDS OF THE COI7NCIL.

Yesterday at 3 o'clock, the Lord Mayor (Alderman Hale),
accompanied by Mr. Gibbons, the chairman, and other
members of the Corporation Markets Committee, Dr.
Letheby, the medical officer of health for the City of Lon-
don, Dr. Aldis, holding a similar office for the district of
St. George's, Hanover-square, Dr. Ansell, Dr. Iliff, and
Dr. Barvia, other medical officers of health for districts of
the metropolis, proceeded from the Mansion-house to
Whitehall, by appointment,to an interview with the Right
Hon. the Lords of the Council in reference to the cattle
plague. The deputation represented the Metropolitan
Cattle Plague Committee, of which they are all members.
The Lords of the Council present at the interview were
Earl Granville, the Lord President; the Duke of Somerset,
First Lord of the Admiralty ; Earl de Grey and Ripon,
Secretary of State for War ; Mr. Cardwell, Secretary of
State for the Colonies ; and Mr. Hutt, Vice-President of
the Board of Trade. Mr. A. Helps, clerk to the Council,
was in attendance, as were also Professor Symonds, and
Mr. Brand, Controller of the Corporation, London. The
deputation was introduced by the Lord Mayor.
Mr. GIBBINS, the chairman of the City Markets Commit-
tee, said they had asked for the interview in consequence
of having received from their lordships a draught copy of
an Order in Council about to be promulgated. In that it
was provided that " during the continuance of the cattle
plague within the city of London, or that part of the me-
tropolitan police district which'is under the jurisdiction of
the Metropolitan Board of Works, no bull, cow, or calf
shall be brought or sent for sale, or for any other purpose,
from or out of any shed or other place within the said
city or district to the Metropolitan Cattle-matket, or to
any other cattle-market whatsoever in any part of Great
Britain." He apprehended that would prevent any cattle
being removed out of any shed whatever for sale, and
that :all the railway termini in London would come
under such a regulation. He presumed that was not
the intention of the Privy Council. (The Lord President
said it was not.) The Order in Council, of Aug. 18, if pro-
perly carried out, would avoid the necessity for the new
regulation, because there it was stated that no person with-
out the license of a Government inspector should send to
market any infected animal. If that order were carried out
no such cattle could be removed;without the sanction of an
inspector. The Corporation of London, having charge of
the Metropolitan Cattle-market, had a great difficulty to
contend with in the present emergency, for they knew that
hundreds of infected cattle were being sent to the metropo-
litan market without the order of any inspector.
The LORD PRESIDENT—Do you receive those cattle,
having no such certificate ?
Mr. GIBBINS said they were not able to prevent it, for
until the cattle came actually within the precincts of the
market the corporation had no jurisdiction, and when they
did enter the market, all their inspectors could do was to
seize all that were infected; but then much of the mischief
likely to arise from their going there had then been done.
It was understood that cattle when first affected by the dis-
ease were not unfit for human food. It was difficult to make
men honest, but if the inspectors appointed by the Govern-
ment would only do their duty the spread of the disease
might be materially checked.
The LORD PRESIDENT—We cannot make mon honest by
an Order in Council. (A laugh.)
Mr. GIBBINS—If people could be stopped from sending
their cattle when infected to the market a great deal of the
disease would be prevented. They had no compensation for
the loss of infected cattle, and they said in eincted that if
they could only sand their cows away at once to market
when attacked by the disease, before the inspector saw
them, they might hope to get something for them. Unfor-
tunately, in cases where the inspectors had seen them, dis-
eased cattle had been allowed to pass into the market and
to be sold there; and in every instance where the Corpora-
tion had sought to prosecute, the magistrates had been dead
against them, and had declined to interfere.
The LORD PRESIDENT.—As far as I understand, you do
not quite relieve us from the inherent difficulties of the
case.

Mr. Gm BINS replied that, when hundreds and thousands
of cattle were driven to the market from all directions, the
authorities there had no means of knowing which were
diseased.

The LORD PRESIDENT said he quite agreed that the num-
bers entering the market were enormous, but that rather
tended to show that all regulations were useless.
Mr. RUDKIN suggested that the Government inspectors
were too few, and that the services of the police might be
resorted to for preventing cattle leaving sheds without the
certificate of an inspector.

Mr. GIBBINS said it appeared to the Corporation Markets
Committee that the Orders in Council involved the de-
struction of a very large number of cattle, which, in the
opinion of different medical officers of health whom they
had consulted, might be avoided.
Dr. LETItEBY said the present wholesale system of
slaughtering animals was to his mind not only contrary to
the dictates of science, but the means also of diminishing
very largely the supply of meat hereafter to the London
markets ; and it was, of all means, the very means of scat-
tering the disease abroad in all directions. At present an
animal infected with the disease was sent to ono or other
of the neighbouring slaughterhouses, and the matter taken
from the alimentary canal was put with other dung and
taken away to be scattered over the land. There was no
supervision of those places. In the first place, there was
not a sufficient supervision of the cowhouses in London,
and the consequence was that cowkeepers were thrusting
into the market animals in a state of disease. The
present system of slaughtering was objectionable, be-
cause it was unscientific, excessive, and dangerous, and
he believed it would in the long run tend to the de-
struction of a large number of cattle that ought not to
be destroyed. Some effort should be made to treat the
infected animals. At present, on an average, two tons
of diseased meat were brought to London weekly. It
was a practice with some farmers as soon as an animal was
infected, to send it to the metropolitan market. It would
be a merciful thing to the animals, as well as a public ad-
vantage, if they were subjected to some treatment instead
of being slaughtered wholesale. What would have been the
result if in cases of typhus or typhoid fever in the human
species the practice had been adopted of not treating it at
all? Treating that disease in hospitals there was now
only one death in ten, and applying that reasoning to this
particular case he came to the conclusion that it was a
barbarous, unscientific, and cruel thing to send the animals
to be slaughtered without any attempt to cure them. If
nothing but the pole-axe must be the remedy, there would
be a great hindrance to the progress of knowledge and a
sacrifice of food, while the slaughtering of such animals in
the public slaughterhouses of London, of all means, would
be the most effectual for spreading the disease throughout
the whole of the metropolis. Ho would therefore suggest
the appointment of more inspectors, and a more careful
supervision of the cowhouses.

The LORD PRESIDENT supposed Dr. Letheby was aware
that there were many veterinary surgeons who did not hold
his opinions as to the curability of the disease ?
Dr. LETIIEBY said the general opinion of his own pro-
fession, oven among those who said they had no hope in
the treatment of the animals when the disease was con-
firmed, was that the disease, like the disease in the human
subject, was amenable to treatment.

The LORD PRESIDENT told Dr. Letheby that two of the
most eminent men in the medical profession did not hold
the opinion which he did on that point.
Dr. ALDIS, Medical Officer of Health for the district of
St. George's, Hanover-square, said ho had been somewhat
surprised at the summary treatment adopted in some dis-
tricts by finding 103 cows disappear from one yard in about
a week. In another case he had found only one diseased
out of 12, but yet the whole 12 had been condemned,
though the remaining 11 had not shown any symptoms of
the disease. It appeared to him hard that those animals
should be summarily destroyed, and no means adopted for
their cure. He was not a partisan for the establishment of
sanitariums in every district, for it had been his duty to op-
pose ono in the district of St. George's, namely, in Kinner-
ton-street ; but it appeared to him that it would be a great
bar to scientific progress if some means were not adopted
for the trial of the veterinary art in this emergency. A great
advantage would accrue to science and to the community if
a commission were appointed consisting of eminent veteri-
nary surgeons, aided by members of the legal profession to
sift evidence, in order to determine a means of cure if pos-
sible. If people waited for a cure of any disease they might
wait to infinity, but he thought a rational mode of treat-
ment might be arrived at which would be alike beneficial
to the animals and to science, if a scientific commission
were set on foot for the promotion of such an object under
the auspices of the Government.

Mr. RUDKIN said one mischievous result of the present
Orders in Council was that cowkeepers were induced to send
even healthy cows to be slaughtered, and a dearth of milk
was being occasioned. He observed from a report by Pro-
fessorSymonds that out of 56,784 cows in a certain number
of Russian villages, 30,237 entirely escaped infection when
the disease was prevalent, 25,778 suffered from the disease
and died, and only the rest were slaughtered.
After some further conversation on matters of detail, in
which the LORD MAYOR, Dr. ANsELL, and other members
of the deputation took part,
The LORD PRESIDENT said his colleagues in the Council,
with himself, had been desirous of having the advantage of
the practical knowledge of the gentlemen composing the
deputation, and he gathered that it was their unanimous
opinion that the Orders in Council now in existence were

not sufficiently carried out ; that the Metropolitan market
authorities had not the means of preventing a certain num-
ber of diseased cattle from entering the market ; that they
suggested the employment of a larger number of inspectors,
aided by the police, and a more complete supervision of all
the cowhouses. Dr. Letheby had given a very interesting
account as to the wanton manner in which cattle were de-
stroyed, instead of the knowledge of treating the disease
being furthered. The establishment of hospitals had been
suggested. The Government had not taken on themselves
to do that, Professor Symonds and othors skilled in veteri-
nary science being of opinion that sanitariums would rather
tend to spread the disease than otherwise. He (the Lord
President) did not think it would be wise to have recourse
to them. The Council would not, however, offer any objec-
tion to any one sanitarium where a cure might be tried.
He might say (turning to Dr. Aldis) that they (the Council)
had been occupied within the last few days in organising