Report on Steppe 3Iurraiii or Rinderpjest. 227 



" 4. At Zawaiz, in the circle of Beuthen, at a totally isolated farm, a case of 

 sudden death occurred to an ox, which the surgeon reported as happening 

 from rinderpest ; but there is considerable doubt as to this opinion being 

 correct. 



" 5. At Wohlau, in the circle of Pless, close to the frontier of Galicia, and 

 into which no cattle had been imported, three cases of the disease occurred, 

 and all at peasants. These animals had come in contact with nine others, and 

 all were consequently killed and a military cordon established. In this par- 

 ticular instance it was impossible to trace the cause of the introduction of the 

 disease. 



" These are all the cases of rinderpest which have recently occurred in the 

 province of Silesia, and at the present time not a single suspicious case exists, 

 owing to the means which the Government has adojited to arrest its course. 

 No fear need be entertained that the disease will extend from Prussia to the 

 neighbouring countries. 



" Breslau, April 27th, 1857. 



"(Signed) Baron Schleinitz, 



" Privy Counciller to his Majesty the King of Prussia, and 

 Upper President of the province of Silesia." 



It will not be necessary to comment on this Report in this 

 place, and more particularly as we shall have hereafter to adduce 

 some remarkable proofs of the contagious nature of the rinder- 

 pest. It is right, however, as several parts of Prussia have expe- 

 rienced during the last two years different outbreaks of the 

 malady, and as its extension in this kingdom especially is an 

 object of much practical importance, as thereby a greater risk 

 is incurred of its reaching those countries which are in direct 

 communication with our ports, that as complete a history of these 

 recent visitations should be here given as we have been able to 

 collect. 



The Recent Outbreak of the Rinderpest in Eastern 

 Europe. 



Throughout the late war the movements of the Russian troops 

 necessaril}' called for the transit of large numbers of cattle to 

 those places which the army successively occupied, and it appears 

 more than probable that the wide diffusion of " the steppe 

 murrain," which has occurred within the last three years, has 

 depended entirely upon this cause. 



The ordinary traffic in cattle leads, it is true, to the annual 

 removal of large herds from the steppes, and hence the outbreaks 

 of the rinderpest, in those countries which are otherwise free 

 from it, can often be traced to the animals which find their 

 way from various fairs and markets. No cause, however, is so 

 potent in the spread of the disease as the outbreak of a Russian 

 war ; and consequently, whenever circumstances have required 

 the passage of her troops over the frontier, the pest has mani- 

 fested itself in a far more extensive form. Thus it is recorded 



