THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



121 



a similar effect by " the Senator of the District of the 

 Marshlands of Hamburg," a copy of which has been 

 given above. 



This succinct history of the proceedings of foreign 

 governments enables us to trace to their probable origin 

 those restrictive laws which have created so great so- 

 licitude in England. We could hardly have supposed 

 that such severe measures would have had the support 

 of scientific men, and more especially in their exclusive 

 application to a disease, whether contagious or not, the 

 antecedents of whose history show that it often passes 

 from country to country as an ordinary epizootic affec- 

 tion. 



Without wishing to animadvert on the opinions of 

 others, we hold that an equal amount of good would 

 attend measures far less stringent j and, if this be so, 

 then a positive injury is inflicted on the country where 

 they are enacted. Take, as one illustration, the quan- 

 tity of food which is lost to the people by the burying of 

 animals in whose system the malady has made but little 

 progress. We are exceedingly jealous lest any obser- 

 vation of ours should be supposed to give encouragement 

 to the sale of diseased meat ; but, after fifteen years' 

 experience of pleuro-pneumonia in this country, and of 

 the sale of the carcases of animals, the subject of it, we 

 do not hesitate to state that the flesh is fitted for food in 

 the early stage of the affection. 



The surprise in the continuance of the system of 

 killing and burying bovine animals becomes the greater 

 when we see it adoiDted in a country where the sale of 

 horseflesh, as an article of food, is both legalized and 

 encouraged by the Government. In Altona we passed 

 by the shop of one of these horse-butchers, and saw 

 exposed for sale part of the hind-quarters, and sundry 

 pieces of flesh of a horse, and also the liver and kidneys 

 of the animal. We were tempted to walk in, when we 

 were informed by the proprietor that there were four 

 other establishments of the same kind in the town, but 

 that his was "the original one." He said that so ready 

 a sale was found for the meat that it was with great 

 difficulty he could procure horses enough for his cus- 

 tomers. The price ranged from about 2d. to 3d. per lb. 

 English money, and it appeared that the meat was often 

 bought by persons who could not be oroperly said to 

 belong to the lower classes. We were invited to see 

 the establishment, and visited the slaughter-house and 

 stable. In the former, besides more meat, was hanging 

 the lower part of the fore leg, with the foot of the animal 

 last slaughtered, which had been put aside for the in- 

 spection of the police ; and in the latter were standing 

 two aged and worn-out horses waiting their turn to be 

 led to the stake. 



These butcheries are licensed by the Government, 

 and are under the supervision of the police. Notice has 

 to be given before a horse can be killed, when the veteri- 

 nary surgeon of the department attends and examines 

 the animal, and, if found to be free from constitutional 

 disease, notwithstanding it may be incapacitated for 

 work from lameness or other defect, he certifies to that 

 effect, and for the sake of identity brands the animal on 

 its hoof. Within a given time the animal must be 

 killed, and its leg and foot produced for the inspection 

 and satisfaction of the police. 



Sweden and Norway. 

 We find by a perusal of oflScial documents which have 

 been placed at our disposal, that tlie fear of the introduc- 

 tion of pleuro-pneumonia from Holstein led the govern- 

 mentof Sweden to interdict the importation of cattle from 

 that duchy in August, 1856, unless accompanied by 

 satisfactory certificates of health. The importation also 

 of cattle from England and Scotland into Sweden was 

 prohibited in the same month. These precautionary 

 measures on the part of Sweden were quickly followed 



by the promulgation of similar ones by the Government 

 of Norway, being in each case evidently founded on the 

 belief that contagion is the chief, if not the only cause of 

 the spread of pleuro-pneumonia. 



Luheck. 



From the circumstance that her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment, by " the Order in Council" of April 2nd, saw fit 

 to prohibit the importation into England " of cattle, 

 horns, hoofs, raw or wet hides or skins of cattle, 

 which shall come from, or shall have been at any 

 place within the territories of the free city of 

 Liibeck," as well as other places named in the 

 said order, it was to be expected that the so-called 

 " steppe murrain" (rinderpest) would be found to be 

 prevailing among the cattle at Liibeck. We were in- 

 formed, however, and immediately on our arrival, that no 

 such disease existed ; and ample opportunities were afford- 

 ed us of subsequently confirming the correctness of this 

 statement. Indeed, rinderpest has never shown itself in 

 the territory since 1813-15, when by the movement of 

 troops throughout Europe it prevailed rather exten- 

 sively here and also in most countries of the continent. 



The precautionary measures which were taken in the 

 spring of 1856, by the Senate of Liibeck, hud especial 

 reference to pleuro-pneztmonia, which disease had some- 

 what suddenly made its appearance in the adjoining 

 Duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg- 

 Strelitz. Some doubt, however, was felt in this country 

 as to whether the " steppe murrain" had not found its 

 way thence from Prussia ; and this was considerably 

 added to by the official reports of Mr. J. A. Blackwell, 

 who up to the beginning of the present year was British 

 Vice-Consul at Liibeck. 



In two despatches dated respectively May I7th and 

 30th, 1856, Mr. Blackwell informed her Majesty's Go- 

 vernment, through the Consul- General at Hamburg, 

 that a contagious pulmonary disease or murrain had 

 broken out among the cattle in Mecklenburgh ; and 

 after giving the particulars of the precautionary mea- 

 sures adopted by the Liibeck authorities to prevent its 

 entrance into their territories, he states that he had con- 

 sulted several of the best German authors on the conta- 

 gious maladies^of cattle, and found that they made a 

 distinction between " rinderpest and pulmonary mur- 

 rain ;" but headds, " io^A are equally contaijious and 

 almost equally fatal, and in a sanitary point of view 

 may in fact be regarded as identical." 



Mr. Blackwell next gives, in the despatch of May 30th, 

 an epitome of the works in question, and under the 

 heading of the steppe murrain, he says that it has 

 been calculated that during the last centnry alone this 

 murrain carried off 28,000,000 head of cattle in Ger- 

 many ; and in the whole of Europe, including Russia, 

 but exclusive of Siberia and Tartary, upwards of 

 200,000,000;" and that " a//AoM^A the disease ivhich 

 has brolien out among the horned cattle in Mecklen- 

 burg seems to be regarded as the jndmonary murrain' 

 pleuro-pneumonia, " it may perhaps be the real 

 steppe murrain, which is now raging in Poland to a 

 fearful extent, notwithstanding the stringent measures 

 that have been adopted by the Russian Government for 

 putting a stop to it.'' 



In a despatch dated September 17th, the same gen- 

 tleman reports that the murrain had extended to 

 Iloistein, and that in consequence of this the regu- 

 lations of the Liibeck Government were enforced 

 with regard to that huchy, as well as Mecklen- 

 burg. He concludes his communication by observing 

 that, " as this highly contagious murrain has spread 

 from the steppes of South liixssia, through Poland, 

 Prussia, and Mecklenburg to Holstein, to a district 

 from which the English marJtet is supplied with cattle, 

 I must beg leave to call the attention of her Majesty's 



