FOOT - AND - MOUTH DISEASE [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, — There is
a cure for foot-and-mouth disease. It has been tested and proved Adequate. The disease, besides general loss and inconvenience, has cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation for slaughtered animals. Yet the Ministry of Agriculture refuses to adopt this cure. It refuses even to allow the inventor to make the experiment in this country.
What are the facts ? For sixteen years the Ministry has been experimenting on guineapigs, trying to find a cure. It has failed. Two years ago Prof. W. M. Crofton completed his experiments and discovered a cure. He laid the results before the Ministry. They were based on a new theory which-the -Ministry refused to accept. They would not allow -him even to supervise the experiments he suggested to prove his case. His was the lot of every pioneer, from Lister to Marconi. In despair at the long delays and difficulties he turned to France. There he met with a better reception. They allowed him to come over, and try his experiments on sick animals. Lait March he tried . his first experiment. ' They, gave Jilin' a couple of lambs. " Do what you like,..with than," they said. "They will be dead in any case tomorrow morning." He gave each of the sick lambs an injection:- Both-were alive next morning. One was frisking- about and eating heartily. The other was better, but not so lively. . He, gave it a stronger dose—and killed it. For this was his first actual experiment. The other lamb is still alive. Each week-end after that for, several weeks Professor Crofton went over to France and repeated his experi- ments, on sheep, pigs and cattle. For the amount of the dosage had to be -discovered for different animals. The final test was on ten great oxen. 'Every one of them was cured. The certificates verifying these -facts have been signed and attested by a well-known French scientist and various veterinary surgeons. - Fortified with these proved results, Professor Crofton again approached the Ministry this summer.' What happened ? Nothing. They still refused to allow him to experiment on one sick animal. No, the sick animal must be
killed at Once. --
In a nutshell, the difference is this. Professor Crofton inocu- lates the sick animal-With its own germs and cures it in four days. The Ministry infects a guinea-pig with the disease from another animal, and tries to cure it, It has' been failing to do so for sixteen years. Meanwhile it has slaughtered thousands of animals at enormous expense. And it has utterly failed to stamp out the disease. Since:Professor Crofton first approached the Ministry, there haVe been eighteen out- breaks of foot-and-Mouth disease. Most of those animals need never have been" slaughtered. The disease is said to come from the Continent. Yet Belgium, which had adopted a curative method, has stamped out the disease. The Belgian method takes eleven days to complete the cure. During that time the animals lose condition. Professor Crofton's cure takes only four days ; and the animals do not lose condition.—
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