Report on Steppe Murrain or Rinderpest. 213 



again broken out among the cattle ; in order to prevent the introduction of 

 this dangerous malady, it is hereby ordered that for the present no cattle can 

 be brought into the district of the Marshlands from the duchies of Holstein 

 and Lauenburg without a certificate from the proper local authorities, stating 

 that, at the places from whence the cattle may come, no infectious disease 

 prevails among the cattle, and this imder a penalty of 50 thalers for every case 

 of contravention. 



The whole of the bailiffs and subordinates are hereby required particularly 

 to attend to this order, and obtain observance of the same, and denounce to the 

 authorities of the Marshlands all who may disobey or attempt to disobey the 

 same. 



(Signed) Arning, Dr. 



Hamhurg, \mh September, 1856. Senator for the Marshlands. 



No cattle intended for the English market are brought into 

 Hamburg by the ships from Tunning or the other ports on 

 the coast of Denmark, but they go direct to England ; nor are 

 many conveyed there for this purpose by means of the navi- 

 gation of the Elbe from Central Germany. " The Order in 

 Council," at the time of our visit in April, did not appear to be 

 understood by the exporters of cattle as to the intention of the 

 Government Avith regard to this port, and they refrained at first 

 from shipping cattle, although Hamburg was not named in the 

 prohibition, for fear that on their arrival in England they should 

 be seized by the Commissioners of customs. 



We were informed by Colonel Hodges, Consul-General at 

 Hamburg, that a similar doubt existed with regard to hides, and 

 further that the order would be inoperative for good, presuming- 

 that the seeds of a contagious disease could be conveyed by these 

 articles of commerce, so long as Hamburg, as the port of the 

 Elbe, and Bremen, as the port of the Weser, were left open, as 

 large quantities of these commodities come down those rivers. 

 The hides are collected from various countries, and it is im- 

 possible to trace them to their original source. The merchants 

 of Hamburg, however, continued to export hides, first making a. 

 declaration before the consul that they did not come from Lllbeck 

 or any of the Baltic ports. The consul upon this certified that 

 such declaration had been made, and thus left our Commissioners 

 of Customs to deal with the question as they might see fit. 

 Should the necessity unfortunately arise to prohibit the importa- 

 tion of cattle, hides, hoofs, &c., from fear of introducing a con- 

 tagious disease, such as the rinderpest, then not only must Bre- 

 men and Hamburg be named in the order, but Tonning also, as 

 the port of the Eider, as this place has direct water communica- 

 tion with the port of Kiel on the Baltic, from which place hides, 

 hoofs, &c., can be readily conveyed. 



Little fear, however, need to be entertained of the introduc- 

 tion of the disease from Denmark by means of any cattle which 

 she might receive from the Baltic ports. The difficulties in the 



VOL. XVIir. Q 



