23G The Cattle-Placjne. 



carried on under the observations of Professors Simonds, Spooner, 

 Dick, and Gamgee,as well as to those more private questionings 

 of nature conducted by able men in both branches of the 

 medical profession, have cast much light upon certain paths that 

 will probably lead to the discovery of preventive or curative 

 measures : with the published Reports of their proceedings, and 

 the memoirs and letters that have appeared from many of the 

 private sources referred to, it will be my duty to make the 

 readers of this Journal acquainted. 



The Origin of the Cattle-Plague. — We will first attempt 

 to ascertain the bearings of opinion on this part of the subject. 



Professor Simonds was, I believe, the first who ventured to 

 afhrm that the disorder he was called upon to inspect at Islington, 

 tlackney, and Lambeth, was imported from Russia. He was 

 joined by Professors Spooner and Gamgee, who having shown 

 that cows bought at the Metropolitan Market at the same time 

 had introduced the disease to these dairies, seized upon the Revel 

 cargo as the direct means of its communication from Russia to the 

 Metropolitan Market. This explanation, which was generally con- 

 sidered to clear up every doubt as to the origin and nature of 

 the epidemic, is said to have broken down under the analysis of 

 the Commission, though not exactly for the reason assigned by 

 Dr. Playfair, who, in a treatise on ' The Cattle-Plague," 

 arbitrarily fixes the period of incubation at 8 days (it extends 

 often to 21 days), and then infers that because the cattle were 

 9 days on the passage, and reached London without visible 

 sign of disease, the disease could not have come in that cargo. 

 Relinquishing this, there is no direct evidence whatever re- 

 maining of foreign extract. Where proof is impossible, dog- 

 matism is rampant. Professor Simonds asserted that it must 

 have come from Russia, Professor Gamgee '"' publicly an- 

 nounced, " This cattle-plague could no more have spontaneously 

 generated itself in England than the mud in London streets can 

 turn into living creatures." The veterinary surgeons having been 

 for some time warned to look for its appearance, at once concluded 

 without question that the virus had been imported. There was 

 a general disposition on the part of the public to adopt the same 



Sir James Simpson, Bart., M.D. ; Professor Strangeways, V.S. ; J. Wilson, Pro- 

 fessor of Agriculture. .VoriwWi.— Peter Ede, ]M.D. (^Lond.), M.R.C.P. ; Frederick 

 Batemau, M.D. ; W. P. Nichol?, F.R.C.S. ; William Cadge, F.R.C.S. ; Thomas 

 Wells, M.R.C.V.S. ; William Smith, M.R.C.V.S. 



* ' Times,' Sept. -1. — He asserts iu his ' History of the Cattle Plague,' that " it 

 is entirely sid gtueris, and never originates spontaneously beyond the Russian 

 frontiers," p. 21." The two German veterinary surgeons deputed to report to their 

 Government on the English plague represent Professor Simonds to have said that 

 though imported in this case, it might have arisen spontaneously from Londou 

 dairies. 



