Report on Steppe Murrain or Rinderpest. 221 



"8. That for the removal of the dead animals special vehicles are to he pro- 

 vided, and these are to be kept in proper places and not used for any other 

 purpose. Persons attending upon the siclc cattle, or coming in contact with 

 them or with the dead, are not to go near healthy animals, and are to take care 

 that all tools or utensils they may have used are properly cleaned. 



" 9. That no manure or fodder is to be sold from off an infected farm. 



" 10. That no animal however slightly affected is to be killed for food — gi-eat 

 vigilance must be used in respect to this order. 



"11. That after the disappearance of the disease from a commune or farm for 

 a period oi eight weeks, it is to be considered as being free from the malady, but 

 that for four weeks longer the proprietor is not to sell any cattle or other for- 

 bidden things from off the place." 



It does not appear that any law is in operation to prevent the 

 importation into the territory from Russia or other countries of 

 skins, horns, hoofs, or tallow ; but we were informed bv M. Toll- 

 hausen, the French Consul, who was acting also pro tern, as British 

 Vice-Consul, that the official returns show that from 6000 to 8000 

 only of dry hides annually enter the port of Liibeck from Russia, 

 for transit inland, while from Mecklenburg and the surrounding 

 countries 80,000 skins are received. These are mostly either 

 salted or fresh, and as such are too heavy for transit to a distance, 

 besides being otherwise unfitted for such a purpose ; they are there- 

 fore further prepared and dried in Lubeck, and then sent onwards 

 to Belgium, Rhenish Prussia, &c., and up the Rhine even as far 

 as Switzerland. No exports of cattle take place from Liibeck 

 by means of the shipping, nor are any imported in this manner 

 from the Baltic or elsewhere, the supply which is needed being 

 sent over the frontier from the surrounding Duchies. Besides 

 this we could not ascertain that any cattle have ever been shipped 

 for England from any of the Baltic ports. Tiie difficulties attend- 

 ing such a voyage and the time it would occupy are sufficient 

 barriers against a trade of this description being carried on, even 

 if no facilities existed for the transit of cattle inland. 



Young stock, however, to the amount it is said of 50,000 

 a-year, pass through the territory of Lubeck from Holstein into 

 Mecklenburg for the supply of the dairies and farms. These 

 facts cannot fail to be of importance for legislation, if hereafter 

 it should unfortunately be the case that the rinderpest should 

 extend thus far westward and in a direction from which foreign 

 cattle are shipped for England. 



Mecklenburg- ScHWERiN and Mecklenbdrg-Strelitz. 



It was from these Duchies that some of the earliest accounts 

 reached England respecting "the murrain," the appearance of 

 which promptly led the senate of Liibeck to interdict the passage 

 of cattle into its territory, unless accompanied with a certificate 

 of their being in a perfect state of health, and created also much 



