Arguments and Enmities

Abstract

The three leading agricultural societies, representing England, Scotland, and Ireland, were the only bodies which viewed with alarm the spread of rinderpest into eastern Europe in the 1850s, sending Simonds, the leading veterinary expert of the day, to Europe in April 1857 to report on the state of affairs. Simonds could understand no language other than English but was accompanied by a British-based German veterinarian, William Ernes, to act as interpreter. The tour has been described as one of the most important epizootiological investigations in veterinary history (Pattison, 1990). At the same time (March 7), the General Board of Health commissioned Dr. E. Headlam Greenhow, lecturer on Public Health at St. Thomas’s Hospital, to investigate “murrain” in horned cattle and the effects of the consumption of diseased flesh on human health (Greenhow, 1857).