332 Contar/ious Disease among Cattle in Mcchlenhurg. 



vent the introduction of tliis fatal disease or murrain into a given 

 <;ountry cannot be too strinsjent or too rigorously enforced. 



In the notification issued by the Liibeck Government, the 

 Mecklenburg murrain is termed " a pulmonary disease " (^Lumjen- 

 seuclie) among horned cattle. There are, however, two kinds of 

 murrain described in the works which I have consulted : one, 

 called in German Rinderpest, or RindrichseucJte, or LiiserdoiTC, 

 and which might appropriately be termed THE Steppe MURRAIN ; 

 the other called LiLngen.-feiLclie, or Lung en f aide, or Lnngenhrand, 

 and which may be termed in English THE PuLMOXARY MURRAIN. 

 Both are equally contagious and almost equally fatal ; and, in a 

 sanatory point of view, may, in fact, be regarded as identical. 

 The following account, condensed from the articles in the works 

 consulted, will afford the necessary information respecting them : — 



The Steppe Murrain. — Origin. — The original seat of this 

 fatal disease is the steppe land of Southern Russia, where it first 

 appeared, or, at least, was first noticed and scientifically described 

 towards the middle of the seventeenth century, since which it has 

 been endemic among the horned cattle of the steppes, both of the 

 Russian steppes and the steppes of Siberia and Tatary (com- 

 monly, though erroneously, called Tartary, and still more erro- 

 neously Independent Tartary), and has at, various times become 

 epidemic and spread to Hungary and Poland, and thence to Ger- 

 many and Western Europe. 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 Tatary) upwards of 200,000,000. 

 It has frequently prevailed in the Duchies of Schleswig and 

 Holstein, especially from 1774 to 1781, when 150,000 head of 

 cattle perished. In 1813 it again broke out in the Dachies, but 

 was speedily checked and eradicated by the stringent measures 

 and police regulations adopted by the Danish Government. 



Sgmptoms. — From the taking or first attack of the disease, to^ 

 its breaking out, seven days generally elapse, during which the 

 cattle attacked are at times more dull, at times more lively, than 

 usual. They hold down their heads, butt with their horns, fre- 

 quently low, and, when driven to water, often jump about and 

 become quite unruly. Sometimes they take their food and chew 

 the cud with unusual quickness ; sometimes not at all. Towards 

 the fifth day, respiration somewhat affected, an unfrequent but 

 short dry cough, back somewhat bent, and, when stroked, unu- 

 sually sensitive. Eighth day : disease breaks out : hair stands on 

 end ; eyes fixed and dull ; nostrils and muzzle hot and dry ; inside 

 of mouth hot and of a deep red ; gums spongy and swollen, and 

 marked with red spots front teeth loose ; hide hard, like parch- 



