Report on Steppe Murrain or Rinderpest. 231 



the progress of the malady the military was employed. The 

 disease presently began to subside, but despite every precaution 

 occasional cases occurred, so that the department of Bromberg was 

 not entirely free from it until the beginning of 1856. The cordon, 

 however, on the frontier of Poland was not raised ; but on a 

 decline of the disease in that country a removal of the impedi- 

 ments which had been placed in the way of trade was gradually 

 permitted. Individuals who could satisfy the oflficei's of the 

 urgency of their business — which, however, must not be in con- 

 nexion with cattle or cattle-ofFal — were, by reason of a certificate 

 from the Counsellor of Administration of the district, allowed 

 to cross the frontier, through the custom offices, into Poland. 

 Upon similar conditions foot-passengers, who must, however, 

 be furnished with only the most necessary requirements, were 

 likewise permitted to pass into the department of Bromberg from 

 Poland. Nevertheless all individuals crossing the frontier, 

 together with their effects, were required to be disinfected in the 

 establishments erected for that purpose at the boundary custom- 

 place, under the superintendence of a gendarme. 



Persons travelling post were likewise subject to the same 

 regulations, and spun goods were not allowed to entei'. 



Early in 1856, namely, in the month of April, the disease 

 also broke out in the department of Breslau in the province of 

 Silesia. For the particulars of this occurrence we are indebted, 

 to Lord Loftus, to whom they were officially communicated by 

 the Prussian government. The report states, " that for forty 

 years the department had been entirely free from the rinderpest, 

 but that the disease had existed therein during ' the War of Inde- 

 pendence.' " All investigations have failed," it says, " to show 

 the precise manner in which the outbreak occurred, but it appears 

 that the disease came from the circle of Schrimm in the district of 

 Posen. The means of its extension from the circle of Schrimm 

 are the more obscure, because those persons who might have been 

 the cause of the conveyance of the infection are interested in not 

 giving correct information. A knowledge of the existence of the 

 pest only reached the authorities at Breslau after three different 

 circles were more or less affected, which circumstance arose from 

 the want of experience of the district veterinary surgeons, none 

 having had an opportunity of previously seeing the disease. 

 Subsequently also about a month elapsed before correct reports 

 Avere obtained from the Commissioners who were specially 

 appointed for the investigation, arising from the great distances 

 they had to travel and the difficulties which were in the way of 

 their making post-mortem examinations." 



" The disease lasted for seven months, ^nd its continuance so 

 long depended in part on the footing it obtained while the inves- 



R 2 



