390 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



If, however, it is certain that this disease never develops it- 

 self spontaneously beyond the frontiers of Russia, the ques- 

 tion still arises as to which of the provinces of that country 

 it properly belongs. This question also occupied, to a great 

 extent, the attention of the convention, as influencing very 

 largely the rules that were to be adopted. 



It is probably in the neighborhood of the Asiatic depend- 

 encies of Russia that the evil has its home; but as the precise 

 district has not yet been satisfactorily ascertained, and as the 

 movements of cattle from the Ural Mountains toward the 

 western portion of the empire very frequently disseminated 

 the contagion in the countries they traversed, it was consid- 

 ered expedient by the convention to leave Russia entirely out 

 of the sanitary agreement, and not to permit the exportation 

 of its cattle except upon certain well-established guarantees. 



The subject of inoculation, as a preventive, in Russia, was 

 carefully discussed by the convention ; but finally it was con- 

 cluded that the experiments hitherto made were scarcely suf- 

 ficient to show a definite measure of beneficial results, and it 

 was agreed that, whatever individual cattle-owners in Russia 

 might prefer to do in the matter, it was not expedient to 

 press upon the governments the enactment of laws on the 

 subject. As to the application of the method to animals of 

 Central and AVestern Europe, the convention repudiated the 

 idea entirely. The numerous experiments showed that very 

 little impression is made upon the mortality that would nat- 

 urally have ensued from the disease without such treatment. 



As to the general question of absolutely preventing the. 

 importation of cattle from Russia, it was found very easy so 

 far as Germany was concerned, but very difficult for Austria 

 and Hungary, owing to the great extent of the coterminous 

 boundaries of the two countries, and the dependence of Aus- 

 tria upon Russia for this source of food. It was therefore 

 recommended that a careful supervision should be exercised, 

 and that cattle, after crossing the frontier, should be subjected 

 to quarantine often days before resuming their journey. 



The question being thus settled in regard to the importa- 

 tion of animals from Russia into Austria, the next point that 

 came up for consideration was the nature of the conditions 

 that the several governments should impose upon themselves 

 toward doing their share to prevent the introduction or spread 



