The Cattle-Plague. 237 



view, Avliich >vas carefully fostered by tlie London dairymen, wlio 

 Mere anxious about certain unpleasant inquiries into the state of 

 Metropolitan cowhouses. When the Revel story was disposed of, 

 inquiry elicited that Hung^arian cattle did introduce the plague 

 to Utrecht, in Holland, last May — that the first beasts found 

 to be afflicted with it in London Avere newly-bought Dutch 

 <ows — and that by this bridge the pest may have passed into 

 England. 



Confining my attention solely to the origin of the present 

 outbreak, I do not find it at all impossible to believe that, after 

 all, the ReA'el cargo did introduce the plague to this country. 

 Possibly, also, it may have come by way of Holland. I should 

 not be at all surprised if the Revel beasts brought the contagion 

 to our cattle, and escaped the consequences of it themselves. The 

 septic germs of disease choose their own time for development. 

 They resemble the seeds of vegetation, which await the arrival 

 of a specific degree of heat, and will not germinate before the 

 minimum be attained. It is so Avith the iniasmata of small-pox, 

 and measles, and scarlatina, which lie dormant for weeks, and 

 months, and years, springing up again under favourable circum- 

 stances. Thus the diseases of the mother country are conveyed 

 across the ocean to the colonies, in ships that exhibit clean bills 

 of health. If it be true that cattle passing through a furnace 

 which, let it be remembered, is far less fiery in Russia than in 

 this country, enjoy an immunity ever more, and that cows in 

 calf purchase in the same way an immunity for their progeny, 

 it is not difficult to believe that a cargo rendered thus incom- 

 bustible could bring fire to our shores without suffering themselves 

 from its consuming effects. ^Moreover, the body of an animal ex- 

 posed to the ferment may not be-in a state to develop it, but yet 

 coming from a district saturated with contagion may convey it 

 clinging to the hair. Seeing that the rinderpest never dies out in 

 the Steppe country, and that it does die out in other countries to 

 which it occasionally gains access, there is reason in assigning 

 Russia as its natural abode. But it must be remembered that in 

 order to set up a disease two causes are necessary — the existing 

 cause, and the predisposing. It exists permanently in the 

 Steppes, because both these are permanently present. Were both 

 permanently present in England, would it not find a constant 

 abode here ? 



Symptoms. — These divide themselves into External and 

 Internal. 



The External symptoms, as stated in the Order in Council 

 of 11th of August, 1865, are as follows: — • 



"Great depression of the vital powers, frequent shivering, 

 staggering gait, cold extremities, quick and short breathing, 



