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this disease is dissemiaatecT will make us more sensible of the necessity for the 

 exercise of the greatest care than from what may be stated of any disease affect- 

 ing the human family, for the reason that it has been more closely studied and 

 written of more freely. Physicians, fearing that in epidemics the claims of hu- 

 manity may be disregarded if the agencies in the transmission of disease were 

 fully stated, have been disposed rather to deny these agencies than to caution 

 against them. 



In a previous number of these reports we noticed the fact that in the western 

 German nations a military cordon is drawn around the place where the rinder- 

 pest may break out, and that no communication is allowed outside of it. But on 

 one occasion an apprentice carpenter boy slipped out of one of these cordons and 

 went to a neighboring farm owned by his fiither, and whilst there repaired a 

 cow stall. The cow contracted the disease, having inhaled the atoms of disease 

 which the clothes of the boy had become infected with whilst in the cordon. 

 These had been in contact with parts of the stall and left upon them the atoms, 

 which were inhaled by the cow. But the following extracts from the regulations 

 of the English privy council, drawn up by a physician, moi'e clearly indicate the 

 numerous things by which this disease may be propagated. After stating that ' 

 the infection is communicated by all parts of the diseased animal, as the skin, 

 hair, horns, and hoofs, as well as by the flesh, fat, entrails, and blood, but es- 

 pecially by the intestinal discharges, which must be regarded as the principal 

 agents in communicating it to other cattle, the following enumeration of infected 

 things and places is given : 



" 5. It follows from the above that all articles which have been in contact 

 with a diseased animal, or any of its discharges, particularly its fgeces, are capable 

 of carrying the infection for an indetiuite time, and must be looked upon as being 

 actually infectious to other healthy animals. Such ai-e racks of wood or iron; 

 cribs or mangers, of wood, iron, or stone ; articles used for fastening animals ; 

 leather collars and straps, ropes and chains ; all harness of any animals used for 

 drawing, and all carts, wagons, and carriages which they have actually been 

 drawing ; the stalls or sheds in which animals have been standing ; the whole 

 lengths of the gutters and drains through which their urine has been flowing ; 

 the entire surface over which their manure has been drawn, and all implements 

 with which the removal has been effected ; the entire dung-heap upon which 

 infected manure has been put, and the fluid contents of the manure-pit, or of the 

 special receptacle for the urine ; yards or sheds in which cattle have been kept 

 to tread down long straw, and the whole of such straw and manure, as also the 

 ground beneath them ; paths and roads upon which diseased animals have walked 

 or been carried ; fields and meadows upon which they have been grazing ; all 

 carriages, trucks, and railway trucks in which diseased cattle have been con- 

 veyed, and all the platforms, bridges, and boards upon which they have been 

 moved thereto ; as also all apparatus which has been used to pen, tie, lift, haul, 

 lower, and fix them ; the clothes, and particularly shoes and boots, and iron- 

 pointed sticks of drivers and their dogs ; the apparel of all cattle-herds or attend- 

 ants, particularly their shoes and boots ; the shoes and boots of all persons vis- 

 iting places where diseased cattle are or have been standing, and, in general, the 

 clothes of all persons visiting infected places, ships, and all parts of platforms, 

 stages, stairs, and bridges, hoists and cranes used for embarking and landing the 

 animals ; markets, and all sheds and pens and implements used in contact with 

 cattle ; slaughter-houses, and all persons and implements in them which have 



