§ SIR HERBERT MAXWELL (Wigtonshire)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that Professor M'Call has written a letter to the North British Agriculturist, in which he speaks of Mr. Pottie's Report to the Renfrewshire Agricultural Society on the disease in imported sheep as an attempt to boycott American sheep and brand the inspectors of the Board of Agriculture; whether Professor M'Call in the same letter declares that the disease is not tuberculosis, but one which has been known to him for 30 years; what is the name and character of the disease; and when an authoritative Report may be expected on a subject causing so much anxiety to owners of flocks in Scotland?
§ *THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. HERBERT GARDNER,) Essex, Saffron WaldenI 127 have read the letter to which the hon. Baronet refers, and in which Professor M'Call states that the disease to which the Renfrewshire Agricultural Society has recently directed attention has been known to him for 30 years. After examination of the specimens sent to us, the Veterinary Officers of the Board have come to the conclusion that the disease is one of a parasitic nature, well known to American pathologists and fully described by them under the title of the nodular disease of the intestines. I propose to address a further communication to the Society on the subject, and it will continue to engage my attention, but it is not one which need cause, I think, much anxiety to stockowners in this country. Large numbers of sheep have been imported from the United States, but so far as my Veterinary Officers are aware, the particular parasite in question has never been detected in home animals, although the disease has been well known to exist in the South Eastern States for many years past.