FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I should like to endorse every word of Mr. S. L. Bensusan's article in your issue of December 17th, and also of a letter on the same subject which appeared in The Times of December zoth.
I can well remember the outbreak of the disease in Essex about 1870, and seeing the beasts' mouths rubbed with salt, but what other treatment they had I cannot now say. I know that some died, some recovered, and some, though running with these, did not take it, being apparently immune.
The present practice of indiscriminate slaughter is no good, and the disease will always re-occur until there are no more cattle left and the farmer is ruined.
Instead of this slaughter policy of despair it would surely be better to isolate the herd and see how many recovered and how many (if any) were immune.—Yours truly, ARTHUR F. HARDY.
Park House, Bishop's Waltham, Hants.
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