The Cattle-Plague. 231 



in Scotland, sixteen out of twenty-seven ; in Wales, two out of 

 twelve. The depressing totals of the bills of mortality have 

 doubled from month to month, and in the face of so great a 

 calamity Parliament deemed it necessary to suspend its ordinary 

 business that it might defend and arm the country. 



The rinderpest was detected in its first appearance towards 

 the end of June in two metropolitan cowhouses by Professor 

 Simonds, and reported to the Home Office on the 10th of July. 

 Having formed a previous acquaintance with this murrain, in its 

 haunts and special breeding grounds,* Mr. Simonds was well 

 aware of the impending danger, and accordingly sounded an 

 alarm, of which, at first, but faint echoes were heard through the 

 country. This timely proceeding gained for him the title of 

 " Alarmist," with those who were ignorant of domestic events 

 from 1745 to 1757, and unhappily they were many ; but the 

 event has proved that his fears were founded on correct knowledge 

 of the subtle and deadly nature of this fever. Before the close of 

 July, Professor Gamgee, in addressing a metropolitan meeting 

 of the troubled cowkeepers, announced that 2000 cows already 

 had perished, though the disease was but a month old. Through- 

 out August the newspapers were pretty fully employed in 

 chronicling its progress through the provinces, for it appeared 

 with a simultaneousness that quite confirmed the views adopted 

 by some superficial advocates of " spontaneous generation." 

 Beyond Middlesex we first heard of it in Surrey, in the Essex 

 Marshes, in Sussex, at Portsmouth and Plymouth, at Aylesbury, 

 in Norfolk, Suffijlk, Warwickshire, Kent and North Lancashire, 

 at Leicester, Peterborough and Nottingham, at Edinl^urgh and 

 Leith, Rayed out from the Metropolitan Market it multiplied its 

 centres of operation, and wrought with a rapidity known only to 

 itself. The veterinary schools set to work to observe and advise. 

 They made post-mortem examinations, did their best to establish 

 the identity of the murrain, wherever it appeared, with the rinder- 

 pest of Russia, and when they had done so agreed that " to slaughter 

 and to stamp-out " was the only prescription of any avail. Town 

 and country meetings were held in the various districts where 

 the disease appeared, to concert measures of defence. From 

 these sprang ^lutual Insurance Associations and Medical Com- 

 missions, and other organised operations, the first provincial 

 examples of which were those of Norwich and Aylesbury. 

 Under the pressure of public opinion, medical testimony, and 

 the exigencies of the case, the Privy Council issued no less than 

 five distinct Orders during the month, the last of which empowered 



* Mr, Simonds -was deputed by the three Agricultural Societies of England 

 Ireland and Scotland to -visit Russia and report upon the " Steppe Murrain," 

 which he did in 1856, his Report appearing in this Journal, Vol. xviii.. Part ii. 



