Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1883-06-23
Disease Among Cattle in Europe.

LOW IhSusl papers nave D0en call
ing attentionto the alarming prevalence
Of disease among cattle. The disease
attacks the mouths and hoofs of horses,
COWS. swine, etc. A couple of months
ago 1t was heard of in the eastern coun-
.ies; at last accounts it was raging in
Lancashire and Staiordshire; in fact.
there is now hardly county in England
TO which it has not spread.
1t is matter of surpriee that pre-
vlously to 1889 this disease was I'M
known in the United Kingdom. Nor
were other diseases of cattle now alto
gether too familiar known up to that
time. Aphthous and vascular diseases
of the mouth and hoofs were simply
known as the epidemic. The correct
term for them, which has since been
applied, is ''epizootic. A year or two
later these diseases were followed by
the contagious pleuro-pneumonia which
was distinguished as ''the new disease"
These diseases were imported into En-
gland from foreign shores. As the
Daily Nes0s has several times pointed
out, it is a remarkable circumstance
that the prevailing diseases, both HUI
man and animal, come from the East
ern world, which has thus been at once
the source of both life and death to hui
manity. The terrible cattle diseases
which have devastated the British herds
passed into that country from the shores
of the North Sea; the Dutch and the
Prussians, on their parts, traced them
to Poland, Hungary and Russia; while
the evolutionary movement at length
brings the. scientific inquirer to the re-
hottest regions of Asia, thus constitut-
ing the cradle of mankind the breeding
place OF its most deadly pestilences.
In Great Britain science has soughtin
vain for remedy for their virulent
cattle epidemics, just as it has sought
in vain for remedy for the cholera of
the present, or the black death and the
plague of the past. In lamenting over
the failure of science to stem the tide of
these death-dealing cattle diseases, an
English journal calls attention to the
fact that in the interval between 1889
and 1888 humanity has. in dealing with
them, only advanced to the point which
Wordsworth, in an uncharitable mood,
assigned as the limit of the physician
usefulness-tO give name to the
disease which he could not cure. Forty
consecutive and highly scientific years
have carried humanity no farther than
this.
1t is believed in England that the
present appearance of the foot and
mouth disease is largely owing to the
wet and cold weather. 1t is even as
serted that had every conceivable way
of entrance from abroad been barred to
the contagion, the traffic in store cattle
between various parts, of the United
Kingdom would of itself be sufficient to
generate the epidemic in such winter
as the present. There is, in fact, grow
ing throughout the country the opinion
that the disease may originate afresh at
independent centers. This opinion is
not, however, reflected in veterinary
writings, nor, does the Government act
upon it, but applies the only remedy
which has so far had any perceptible eff
feet in checking its ravages-the
slaughter of all foreign cattle supposed
to be tainted.
The latest newspaper accounts say
that disastrous outbreak of the foot
and mouth plague has just occurred in
the royal farms at Windsor, which af-
fords striking evidence that the most
systematic care and the most perfect
housing are no safeguards against the
contagion of disease which must be
referred in the last analysis largely to
hardships and natural causes.
1t is striking evidence of the pres
ent straits of the British farmers that
the journals, which more Immediately
represent their interests, call for the free
importation of store cattle from foreign
countries, to be subsequently fatted for
market. Such an importation would
help the cattle in the United States,
while it would, were such cattle care
fully handled in transportation by land
and sea, ohviate much of the loss from
shrinkage, which is now almost fatal
objection to shipping stock on long
lines of communication. Chicago NeDS.