204 Report on Steppe Mun-aia or Rinderpest. 



was directed to it on two or three different occasions. Her 

 Majesty's Government early gave instructions for our Consuls 

 abroad to collect all the information they possibly could in their 

 several localities, and transmit the particulars of their inquiries 

 without delay to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. These 

 despatches were from time to time forwarded by LoKD 

 ClarenDGX to the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, 

 who also had from the beginning taken the liveliest interest in 

 the matter, and who lost no opportunity of placing the latest 

 information before the country through the weekly publication 

 of their proceedings. 



These official documents in no way tended to allay public ap- 

 prehensions, but rather, on the contrary, to increase them, as it 

 was distinctly stated that the " murrain" was rapidly making its 

 way westward from the countries where it had been first observed, 

 and that it would ere long be introduced here unless the greatest 

 caution was exercised in regulating our supply of foreign cattle, 

 and even then it was more than probable that the disease would 

 come in, as it was said that it could be carried from place to place 

 by skins, hoofs, or horns, or indeed anything which had been 

 exposed to the infection by being brought near to the diseased 

 animals. 



Notwithstanding the great amount of information supplied by 

 our Consuls, very little of a satisfactory kind could be obtained 

 with reference to the true pathology of the disease. The Council 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society therefore felt that under such 

 circumstances as these some more decisive step should be taken, 

 and at this juncture a communication from the Royal Agricultural 

 Improvement Society of Ireland was received, suggesting " that it 

 would be desirable for the three Agricultural Societies of the 

 United Kingdom to join in the common object of despatching 

 abroad a special veterinary inspector, for the purpose of ascer- 

 taining the exact nature of the ' contagious typhus.' 



At a meeting of the.Council, held on the 1st of April, some 

 further communications were read from Mr. Hall Maxwell, C.B., 

 Secretary of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, 

 and from Captain Croker, Secretary of the Royal Agricultural 

 Improvement Society of Ireland, expressing their willingness to 

 concur with the Royal Agricultural Society in arrangements for 

 despatching a Veterinary Inspector to the districts abroad where 

 the cattle murrain is at present raging. The Council therefore 

 came to the following resolution : — 



" That it is expedient to send a competent veterinary professor to examine 

 into the nature of the cattle murrain on the Coutinent. That the Society 

 gladly accepts the co-operation of the Highland and Agricultural Society of 

 Scotland and the lloyal xVgricultural Improvement Society of Ireland in this 



