3 FEBRUARY 1866, Page 2

The cattle-plague -returns are -still alarming, the number of seizures

being 11,165 for the. week,-against 10,041 for the previous one. The per-centage of recoveries is still eleven and a half per cent., but the hopes entertained from vaccination have been seriously damped. 'The official inquiry, it is stated, • has shown that vaccination is not a certain prophylactic, Dr. Murchison ha.s given it up, and Mr. R. Harper, a surgeon, writes to the Times to say that he vaccinated two animals successfully, and put them in separate yards where beasts were sickening Of the plague. On the.ninth :day qbothianimals died. 'Vaccination not being. a com- plete protection even to human beings, these statements are not quite conclusive, but it seems certain that at- all events too ;much hope was at first entertained. The • agitation therefore for stronger measures increases, and the idea of buying every, animal diseased or- now in communication with diseased ,animals, killing itiand-so stamping out ", the,pest, decidedly gains ground. We -question still-whether Government has the power to prevent •the locomotion of -cattle, or •to forbid, the importation of live- beasts

• without raising meat • -to 213.-per ;lb., and to_ give up a disease-as ineurable is -simply disgraceful to science. Everything ris . incura- ble until the cure hasbeen found.