§ SIR EDWARD BIRKBECKasked the Vice Chamberlain whether the possibility of the transmission of the contagion of foot-and mouth disease by secondary means, such as in the persons or clothes of those corning in contact with animals affected, has been recognized by the veterinary authorities consulted by the Government; whether it has been found needful to take very stringent precautions as regards the disinfection of persons passing out of Deptford Market, or the places where infected foreign animals are now received; whether cases have occurred before such precautions were imposed in 487 which the disease has been believed to have been conveyed both into and out of Deptford, in 1883 and 1884, by persons thus engaged; and whether the Privy Council have satisfied themselves that precautions sufficiently stringent now exist in the Netherlands to prevent the disease being carried by dealers, drovers, butchers, and others passing from Germany or Belgium to places within the Dutch frontier?
§ VISCOUNT LEWISHAMA Departmental Committee was appointed by the Lord President last year to inquire into pleuro-pneumonia and tuberculosis in the United Kingdom, and the Report of that Committee has been considered on several occasions by the Committee of Council for Agriculture. A letter has been received from His Royal Highness the acting President of the Royal Agricultural Society, and has been considered by the Committee. A reply has been forwarded to His Royal Highness. The recommendations of the Committee, except those which are already included in Orders of Council, can only be carried out by further legislative enactment. And this question is still under the consideration of the Government.
§ SIR E. BIRKBECKWhy was not Professor Brown, or some other Gentleman connected with the Department, sent out instead of asking the Royal Agricultural Society to send a representative?
§ VISCOUNT LEWISHAMThe Privy Council did not consider it came within their province to send an official over to see how the regulations are enforced by a friendly Government.
§ MR. CHAPLIN (Lincolnshire, Sleaford)Will the First Lord of the Treasury consider it convenient to answer the question I put to him on Friday—namely, whether any reply has as yet been received from the Royal Society, and whether we are to understand that pending such reply by their emissary, the Order of the 31st of March will not be allowed to come in force?
§ *THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. W. H. SMITH,) StrandNo reply has yet been received from the Royal Society. The Committee is summoned for to-morrow to receive the communication made to them from the Government. As the rule does not come into operation until the let of June, there will, I apprehend, be ample time.