246 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 



pounds per year, and also are permitted to receive fees for their 

 official attendance in addition to their regular fees. They are fur- 

 ther favored in their practice by their official positions, it being a 

 guarantee to the public of their competency. Prussia does much to 

 encourage graduated students to continue their studies. This win- 

 ter some thirty men, from twenty-five to forty years of age, are re- 

 ceiving about forty pounds each from the Government to pay their 

 expenses in Berlin, while they are attending lectures and studying ; 

 and at the time I write they are being examined for higher positions. 

 Every year a new set arrives ; so you will understand that our sci- 

 ence is properly encouraged on the Continent, and a man has some 

 incentive to work. In Prussia, to every 4*75 square miles (geo- 

 graphical) there is a veterinary surgeon, and to his care are confided 

 1,544 horses, 4,592 cattle, 14,221 sheep, 2,192 hogs ; and there are 

 (these figures apply to 1875) 1,290 veterinary practitioners. This 

 has no reference to the number of official veterinarians. 



These few remarks will serve as an introduction to the remainder 

 of my letter. Early in January there was an unusual excitement to 

 be noticed around our school ; messengers were to be seen rapidly 

 passing between the offices of the Minister of Agriculture and the 

 school officials. It soon transpired that " der Teufel's los," as it was 

 expressed to me, or, in other words, the " rinderpest " was in Ham- 

 burg. It took but a short time to arrange matters. Professor Miil- 

 ler, whom you know as an anatomist, and a great authority upon 

 this scourge, was dispatched to Hamburg with a high government 

 officer. Another great expert was sent to the Russian frontier; 

 every department veterinary officer was notified by telegraph, and 

 in less than twelve hours an embargo was placed upon every head 

 of horned cattle in Germany. If I mistake not, your Government 

 was officially informed of the sailing of the Castor with infected 

 cattle from Hamburg, in sufficient time to have stopped her before 

 reaching London. She should have been stopped some distance 

 from that port, her hatches battened down, and the vessel and cargo 

 towed somewhere, sunk, and paid for by the Government. If this 

 was in reality the first infected cargo, then England would perhaps 

 have been preserved from a serious loss ; the future can alone prove 

 what the loss may be. 



To return to the outbreak in Germany. The Berlin and all 

 other markets were most vigilantly watched, and no cattle or other 

 animals were allowed to be removed from them alive for slaughter 

 in the city. (All cattle moved at any time from the markets in 

 Berlin are moved only in large cattle-wagons ; the same is true of 



