Hcport on Steppe Murrain or Rinderpest. 219 



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 century alone this murrain 

 carried off 28,000,000 head of cattle in Germany ; and in the 

 whole of Europe, including Russia, but exclusive of Siberia and 

 Tartary, upwards of 200,000,000 ;" and that " althoufih the dis- 

 ease ichic/i has broken out among the horned cattle in Mecklenburg 

 seeins to he regarded as the pulmonary murrain^^ — pleuro-pneu- 

 monia — " it may perhaps he the real steppe murrain, which is noxo 

 raging in Poland to a fearful extent, notwiiltstanding the stringent 

 measures that have been adopted by the Russian Government for 

 pxdting a stop to itT 



In a despatch dated Sept, 17th, the same gentleman reports 

 that the murrain had extended to Holsteln, and that in conse- 

 quence of this the regulations of the Liibeck government were 

 enforced with regard to that Ducliy as well as Mecklenburg. 

 He concludes his communication by observing that, " as this 

 highly contagious murrain has spread from the Stepj)cs of South 

 Russia, through Poland, Prussia, and Mecklenburg to Holstein, to 

 a district from which the English market is supplied with cattle, I 

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

 my Report of its origin, progress, treatment^ symptoms, &,-c., trans- 

 mitted on the 30th of May last.'' 



These statements could not fail to add to the alarm which was 

 originally felt in this country, and when it is considered that for 

 several months afterwards scarcely a week elapsed without intel- 

 ligence reaching us that "the cattle murrain" was spreading, 

 the surprise becomes the greater, rather than otherwise, that 

 some measures of a preventive nature were not earlier adopted 

 by Her Majesty's Government. It is true that the reports from 

 other British consuls did not fully bear out Mr. Blackwell's 

 statements, but still nothing satisfactory could be learned of the 

 true nature of the malady, and up to the time of the three 

 National Agricultural Societies determining on sending a com- 

 mission to investigate the subject, the English public were left 

 in a state of uncertainty and doubt. 



In Oct. 1856, the restrictions against the entrance of cattle into 

 Liibeck from Mecklenburg were removed, as the disease appeared 

 to have ceased there ; but they were again enforced in February 

 following, as the malady had reappeared, and on our arrival 

 they were still in full operation. 



The regulations which had been enforced by the Senate to guard 

 against the introduction of contagious diseases are as follows. 

 They have been established for several years, and are only modified 

 from time to time according to the places in which such diseases 

 are known to prevail. 



