The cattle plague : with official reports of the International Veterinary Congresses, held in Hamburg, 1863, and in Vienna, 1865 / by John Gamgee.

  • Gamgee, John, 1831-1894.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cattle plague : with official reports of the International Veterinary Congresses, held in Hamburg, 1863, and in Vienna, 1865 / by John Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    35/902 (page 13)
    Few would believe that, with the enormous increase in the metropolitan population even since 1861, we should have a progressive diminution in the home supply of cattle. Years. Supply of Cattle. 186] 240,30i 1864 213,662 Diminution .. .. 26,642 Mr. Eobert Herbert, who contributes useful articles on the cattle-trade to the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, refers to the present state of matters, and in his last he says :— ' The consumption in London is increasing every year ; prices ' have continued to improve; and even the extensive impor- * tations from the Continent have failed to affect the value of ' English stock. The question, therefore, of an adequate supply ' of food has become a serious one^—more especially as the foreign ' arrivals, with very few exceptions, are still very deficient in ' quality.' Writers in Hie Times and other papers have been urging the importance of preventing the slaughter of calves. It is a well- known fact, that the British veal trade has been almost entirely superseded by foreign importations; and in 1864 three-fourths of the supplies of the metropolis were from abroad. It is easy to demolish, but how are we to build ? We have been sapping our resources, and how are we to replenish the land ? Until very recently it was impossible to get people to admit that less animal food was annually available for our ever- growing population. They would not admit the evil. The writer of this article predicted the existing and threatening state of matters fifteen years ago; and the ground of his pre- diction was, a knowledge of the rate jit which animals were destroyed by diseases, imported into this country by the very