Report on Steppe Murrain or Rinderpest. 225 



her Majesty's ambassador at the Court of Vienna, to procure for 

 us letters of introduction and recommendation to the authorities 

 in the Cracow division of Galicia, in the event of its being^ 

 found necessary to go thus far to complete our inquiry. A 

 letter containing his Lordship's suggestions was thereupon for- 

 warded to him, and to this I had the honour of receiving the 

 following reply : — ■ n 



" SlE, " Berlin, April 23, 1857. 



" I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date, 

 " I enclose to you herewith copy of a letter I have addressed to Baron 

 Manteuffel, requesting H. E. to give you a letter of recommendation for the 

 proper authorities at Breslau ; and I shall not fail to forward to you, without 

 delay, H. E.'s reply. 



" I shall likewise request Sir H. Seymour to procure for you a similar 

 introduction to the authorities at Cracow, and shall further beg him to forward 

 the reply to your address, ' Poste restante a Cracovie.' 



" I have, &c., 



"Augustus Loftus. 



" Professor Simonds, Hotel Victoria, Berlin." 



His Excellency Baron Manteuffel readily complied with the 

 request thus made, and being now furnished with all necessary 

 letters of recommendation, we made our way as quickly as possible 

 into Silesia ; and, arriving at Breslau, at once reported ourselves 

 to Baron Schleinitz, by whom we were also most courteously re- 

 ceived, and who had already prepared for our use a written 

 account of the progress which the disease had made in the spring 

 of the present year in his province. The Baron met us by some- 

 what facetiously remarking, " that, fortunately for Prussia, but 

 perhaps unfortunately for us, who had travelled so far to study 

 the nature of rinderpest, it had no existence just now in Silesia." 

 He traced, however, upon the map the different places where the 

 disease had recently prevailed near to the Polish frontier, and 

 which he himself had visited. He likewise related several re- 

 markable instances of the highly infectious nature of the disease, 

 and of its conveyance from place to place by indirect means of 

 contagion. The following is a translation of the Report alluded, 

 to :— 



" Report of the Disease vMch prevailed among the Horned Cattle in the 

 Province of Silesia during the Months of March and April, 1857. 



" The rinderpest, which in the present year has visited the province of Silesia, 

 has, with one exception, in which the precise manner that the infection was 

 carried to the premises could not be satisfactorily ascertained, been clearly 

 traced to the introduction of two herds of cattle from Galicia, of the Podolian 

 or Hungarian breed, numbering respectively 44 and 37. These beasts were 

 purchased by different landowners, and were brought to their several estates 

 in an apparently healthy condition. Some of the animals have remained in 



