The Cattle-Plague. 233 



of the month it had appoared in twenty-nine counties in England, 

 two in Wales, and sixteen in Scotland. The first Return prepared 

 by the veterinary department of the Privy Council, under the 

 headship of Professor Simonds, showed a gross total of 17,673 

 animals attacked, of which 848 had recovered, and about 120() 

 were in a doubtful state; the cases of attack in the second, third, 

 and fourth week numbering respectively 1054, 1729, and 1837. 

 The doctors and the nostrum-mongers Avere of course busy. 

 Multitudes had a specific, but no one held a cure. The redhot 

 iron cross with v/hich the cattle were branded on the head in 

 the year 376 seemed, according to Cardinal Baronius, a far 

 more potent remedy than medical science has been able to offer 

 in 1866. The practitioners being ill acquainted with the nature 

 ol the disease — and thereby obliged to accept the vague name 

 it now bears — treated it from very various points of view, Tlie 

 results, however, were dismally uniform. Some slight improve- 

 ment in the rate of recovery was observed, but this has been 

 disputed by those who carefully analysed the returns. Many 

 were the hopes built upon the approach of winter. The cholera 

 bows to a fall of the barometric column. But the chilly 

 autumnal nights destroyed the hope before the winter came. 

 Cold rains and bleak winds imparted a malignant zest to the 

 virus, and the rate of mortality rose correspondingly. 



The Report of the Commission, when it appeared in November, 

 brought no relief. It rather increased the alarm, for the evidence 

 on which it was founded confirmed the gloomiest forebodings 

 that had reached the public eye, and pointed out a remedy in 

 slaughter and absolute stoppage of cattle traffic, which the Govern- 

 ment, influenced by the milder recommendation of the agri- 

 cultural section of that body, did not feel warranted to enforce 

 before the meeting of Parliament. They preferred to issue 

 another Order, revoking powers previously given to inspectors, 

 and stimulating local action by conferring more extensive powers 

 on various local authorities. Unhappily this step induced an 

 amount of confusion of which the plague took the most ample 

 advantage ; for throughout the months of November, December, 

 and January, our loss doubled every four weeks, and at the 

 close of February it amounted to nearly 12,000 a week. 



The following Table (see next page) presents a clear view of 

 the extent of the calamity. 



These figures, however, are merely approximate. They repre- . 

 sent the facts that came only under the immediate cognisance of 



Lyoa Playfair, C.B. ; C. S. Keacl, M.P. ; E. Quain, iNI.D. ; Bence Jones, M.D. ; 

 E. A. Parkes, M.D. ; Thomas SVormald, President of College of Surgeons; 

 Robert Ceely, Surgeon ; Charles Spooner, Principal of Veterinary College, and 

 J. li. Jl'Clean, President of Institution of Civil Engineers. 



