The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-25 00:00:00

WESTMORELAND.

At a meeting of the Appleby Mutual Cattle Assur-
ance Association, held at the county town on Satur-
day, a discussion took place upon the desirability of
introducing vaccination as a preventive of the cattle
plague. The Rev. James Simpson, vicar of Kirkby
Stephen, in advocating the experiment, said he had
some cows of his own vaccinated about ten days ago.
He had a milk cow, in full milk, and two calves
vaccinated at the same time, and they had all taken
admirably. They all took their food as usual; the
milk was just as abundant as it had been before, and
perhaps more than might have been expected under
the circumstances ; it had been used exactly in the
same way as the other milk was used, and no percep-
tible difference could be detected. It was satisfactory
to him, at all events, that no harm could arise from
introducing vaccination into their stocks. His
cow was vaccinated in the dewlap. A thread was
charged with lymph, a knot was made, and then it
was drawn through the dewlap and there left, and
it produced the desired effect. The reason the doc-
tor chose that particular part was that there was no
other part of the cow from which the matter could
better circulate through the system. The animals he
had had vaccinated since had been done in different
parts of the body with other objects in view. He
wished to ascertain whether lymph could be pro-
duced from cows in such a form and condition as to
be used in vaccinating other cows. He had had a
heifer done in the back, and a bullock done in
another place ; and he found that if the vaccine
matter took, and lymph was formed, the matter
could be obtained. He saw a cow vaccinated
ten days before, belonging to Mr. Williams,
of Langley-house, who had chosen a place a hand's
breadth from the root of the tail upon which to
introduce the vaccine matter. He removed the
hair, and caused the place just to show blood, and
having deposited the vaccine matter there it formed
a very large pox, nearly the size of half-a-crown,
and from that place the matter might easily have
been taken. With respect to the experiments tried
near Aspatria and at Carlisle, he thought there had
been sufficient evidence at all events to lead them,
as prudent men, to adopt vaccination as a means of
stopping the plague, if it could be done at such an
' expense as would not be of much consequence. A
resolution was adopted by the meeting to the effect
that vaccination should be tried, and authorising
the directors to get the cows of members of the
association vaccinated.

Railway and other Companies.

MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, AND LINCOLNSHIRE

The half-yearly meeting was held yesterday at
Manchester, Mr. Watkin, M.P., in the chair.
The report, an abstract of which has appeared in
The Sun, was taken as read.

The CIIAIR3IAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, analysed the increase of traffic, which re-
sulted in the improved dividend of 31 per cent. It
was the logical consequence of arrangements made
in previous half-years for the working of the line,
interchange of traffic with other companies, and
access to new districts. The loss on the South
Yorkshire, supposing it were accounted for sepa-
rately-, would be about £3,000, but the Sheffield line
had received many times £3,000 on the additional
traffic the South Yorkshire had brought upon it.
iVith regard to capital, the admission of the Great
Northern.and Midland into partnership with the
Sheffield, as proprietors of the Liverpool and
Cheshire lines, had reduced the liability of the Shef-
field Company to £1,061,000 for the completion of
the whole of these new undertakings. The map on
the wall of the room showed the section, not at all
distorted or out of form, of the intended new line
between Buxton and Sheffield, in the interest of the
London and North-Western. The sight of that
section had dissipated from his mind any feelings of
alarm he might have entertained with reference to
the contemplated aggression. The route would be
about the same length as the Sheffield company's,
but its terminal stations would be less conveniently
placed. The line was divisible into three engineer-
ing sections—tunnels, viaducts, and embankments
or cuttings. The tunnels were only 5 1-3 miles
out of a total length of 27 miles ; the viaducts would
be 2f miles; and the embankments and cuttings
would be 19 1-6 miles. There was no " level" at
all, anywhere ; the highestgradient was 1 in 80 (for
18 miles) and the lowest was one in 300. One of
the viaducts was 260 ft. high ; the lowest of the
viaducts was 57ft. high. An estimate had been put
forth that the line would cost the London and N orth-
Western £1,000,000 ; but the depositors of the bill
had taken care to provide for £2,400,000 of capital,
or £77,450 a mile, and he was assured, on most
competent engineering authority, that the line could
never be made for less than £3,000,000. One of
the North-Western directors had stated that the
object was to retaliate for the Sheffield Company's
new line to Liverpool, though the Parliamentary
case for that line was an overwhelming case in the
interests of the public, for so inadequate was the
accommodation between Manchester and Liverpool
that the North-Western, on an average, took a
longer time to run its express over the 31 miles of
level than it took the Sheffield Company to work its
expresses over the 41 miles of steep gradients be-
tween Manchester and Sheffield. (Hear.) The
chairman quoted statistics to show there was not
sufficient traffic to make the proposed competing line
remunerative, and pointed out that the London and
North-Western had possessed for years running
powers over the existing Sheffield line, though it had
never found it worth while to use them. The Nort-
h had over and over again refused the pro-
posal of the Great Northern and Sheffield to make
return tickets between London and Manchester
available by both routes, so as practically to double
the public accommodation without a farthing of cost
to the companies. (Applause.)
The motion was seconded by Mr. Fenton, and
after some remarks from Mr.Wylesaml Mr. Roberts,
was adopted unanimously.
The guaranteed dividends were declared ; also a '
dividend at the rate of 31- per cent. per annum on
I the ordinary stock for the past half-year. Mr. J.
IBrown was elected a director to replace Mr. A.
1 M'Dougall, who had retired; and after some 1
dis-
cussion, resulting in a vote of 42 to 13 for allowing
1£3,400 a year as remuneration to the directors, the
1 proceedings concluded with thanks to the chairman.