§ EARL GRANVILLEread the following letter which he had received from the inspector specially sent down on the part of the Government to make inquiries with reference to the mode of treatment pursued at Baron Rothschild's farm:—
Veterinary Department of the Privy CouncilOffice (Inspector's Office), Princes Street,London, S.W., Feb. 15, 1866.Sir,—I have the honour to inform you that, acting on your instructions, I yesterday went down to Mentmore, the seat of Baron Rothschild, for the purpose of investigating the treatment of animals affected with cattle plague, as adopted by Mr. Worms. I found on the premises 118 head of cow-stock divided into several lots, but occupying yards sufficiently contiguous to each other as to afford great facilities for the spread of any infectious disease. Until Friday last, February 9, the whole of the animals had continued in perfect health; but on this day a heifer, one of a lot of twenty-four, gave indications of illness. The veterinary surgeon, Mr. Lepper, of Aylesbury, who was called to the case, recognized some of the earlier symptoms of cattle plague, and as such the animal was placed as soon as possible under the care of Mr. Worms. Notwithstanding all the attention which it received it died on the fourth day of the attack. On Saturday, the 10th instant, two other heifers were also said to be attacked with the plague, and consequently were placed aside by themselves. On Monday one, Tuesday four, and Wednesday (the day of my visit), three more of the herd were removed as being likewise the subjects of the plague. The ten animals were also placed under the care of Mr. Worms, who has 585 since superintended all the details of their treatment and general management. The early cases were reported to me as having been cured, and the others as going on most satisfactorily. It required but little knowledge of the diseases of cattle to at once see that none of the ten animals had been, or were, the subjects of any serious disease; and, after giving to each of them a careful examination, I failed to detect the slightest symptom of cattle plague in any one of them, Whether plague will, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, be developed in the herd remains to be seen, but should the opinion of Mr. Lepper be correct as to the cause of the death of the first animal, only a few days can pass without determining the point.—I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,JAMES B. SIMONDS.The Clerk of the Council.
§ THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGHasked the noble Earl whether, in connection with this subject, he would consent to lay on the table a copy of a letter which had been published in the newspapers, he apprehended by the authority of the Government, about three weeks after the plague first broke out. It was from the Consul at Warsaw, stating that a disease had broken out in Poland in 1857, such as was represented now to exist in this country, but in no case did it extend itself to any part of the country where the water was impregnated with iron, and that cures had been effected in other parts of the country by giving animals water in iron vessels. He was astonished to find that a letter so remarkable had failed to attract public attention, and that so simple a method of treatment had not been resorted to, at all events, experimentally.
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, that the noble Earl's suggestion should not be forgotten, but did not anticipate any very favourable results from the course of treatment indicated in the letter.
§ THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGHsaid, he had met the other day a gentleman who had lost a good many cattle by the plague, and on mentioning the Consul's letter to him he said it was a remarkable fact that an animal which had been in the habit of drinking from an iron vessel was the only animal he had saved.