138 



CATTLE PLAGUE. 



of their identity is strong, from the evident 

 contagiousness of the plague, and the only 

 measures of repression which were found suc- 

 cessful in extirpating the disease, viz. : the 

 separation of the diseased from sound stock, and 

 the free use of the pole-axe to slaughter sus- 

 pected animals, and their burial and the de- 

 struction of their hides, to prevent the spread 

 of the contagion. Murrains were frequent on 

 the Continent for the next two hundred and 

 fifty years, but there seems to have been no 

 general one in England after 1480, until 1714. 

 It then appeared first in the neighborhood of 

 London, and swept off many cattle ; but the 

 prompt slaughter of all suspected beasts, and 

 their burial deep under the earth, proved effect- 

 ual in suppressing it, and it did not extend its 

 ravages over more than six or eight counties. 

 Thirty years later, in 1745, it reappeared, and 

 being dealt with less severely, was not extin- 

 guished under twelve years. The cattle plague 

 of 1711-1714, though comparatively light in 

 England, had raged with terrible severity on 

 the Continent, one million five hundred thousand 

 cattle having perished from it in the three years. 

 The wars of Louis XIV., until his death in 1715, 

 aided much in the propagation of the murrain, 

 which was transmitted from one country to 

 another by the long marches of his armies, and 

 of the cattle on the hoof which accompanied 

 them. The War of the Succession on the death 

 of Charles VI. in 1740, was the signal for the 

 commencement of another murrain more terri- 

 ble than any which had preceded it. ' In eight 

 years, 1740-1748, the western and central States 

 of Europe alone lost three millions of horned 

 beasts. The Hungarian cattle, used to feed the 

 armies of Austria, carried with them the seeds of 

 the plague, and communicated them to the cattle 

 of Western Europe. 



Early in 1745, this plague was brought into 

 England from Holland, two calves which had 

 been imported from that country communicating 

 it to a herd of English cattle. The London 

 cattle market was soon affected, but its spread 

 was slow, and the Government did not deem it 

 necessary to resort to very stringent measures 

 for its suppression. A commission, whose pow- 

 ers extended only to Middlesex, was appointed 

 in November, 1745, to prevent its spread. In- 

 spectors, who were butchers and cowkeepers, 

 were appointed to examine cowsheds and sep- 

 arate the sick from the sound beasts. The dis- 

 eased animals were killed and buried twelve 

 feet under ground, their hides being well slashed 

 and their carcasses covered with two bushels 

 of quicklime. The Government allowed forty 

 shillings, about half the average price of 

 cattle at that time, as compensation for the 

 slaughtered beasts. The disease, however, con- 

 tinued to spread, the regulations for its sup- 

 pression being but indifferently obeyed, and on 

 the 12th of March, 1746, the first order in coun- 

 cil for its more effectual eradication was issued. 

 This Border, after reciting the opinion of eminent 

 physicians and cattle-breeders that the disease 



was incurable, declared that the death of the 

 infected beasts must be insisted upon. The 

 following were the provisions of the order: 

 " Plague-stricken beasts must be killed and 

 buried with quicklime; the litter infected by 

 them must be burned, and the sheds in which 

 they died, cleansed, fumigated with sulphur, or 

 gunpowder, and washed over with vinegar and 

 water. Men who tended ailing beasts were not 

 to go near sound stock till they had changed 

 their clothes and washed then- bodies. Con- 

 valescent cattle were not to be brought in con- 

 tact with sound stock for a month. Travelling 

 cattle were to be stopped in the highways for 

 examination, and the sick beasts must be slaugh- 

 tered. The local authorities who were intrusted 

 with the execution of this order were authorized 

 to appoint inspectors to see the rules enforced." 

 This order was but partially enforced, nor were 

 those that followed for the next eleven years 

 much more generally obeyed. Some of the 

 counties succeeded in ridding themselves of the 

 pestilence, while others harbored it, and com- 

 municated it to those adjacent. Hence there 

 arose a war of county against county, and a 

 proscription of intercourse between the healthy 

 and infected districts. In the second year of 

 the plague, 100,000 head of cattle perished in 

 Lincolnshire, and in the third year 70,000 in 

 the two counties of Nottinghamshire and Chesh- 

 ire. After nearly twelve years, the disease 

 wore itself out by pure exhaustion, the animals 

 susceptible to its influence having mostly per- 

 ished. In February, 1759, a general thanks- 

 giving was proclaimed for its cessation, no cases 

 having occurred during the previous year. 

 During the prevalence of this epidemic, every 

 means of treatment or medication was resorted 

 to in the vain hope of cure, but all in vain. 

 Calomel, yeast, castor oil, porter, port, brandy, 

 whiskey, and every thing else in the way of 

 drugs was tried ; copious bleedings and setons 

 in the neck were prescribed, until it was found 

 that no animal which was bled ever recovered ; 

 sweating and steaming were attempted, without 

 success. There was another short outbreak of 

 the murrain in England in 1768, and a more 

 . protracted and destructive one on the Continent; 

 but in England it was speedily eradicated. Dr. 

 Faust, from careful inquiry, computes that from 

 1711 to 1796 more than two hundred millions 

 of horned cattle were cut off by this plague in 

 Western Europe. 



It has been already stated that the steppes 

 of Eastern and Southeastern Russia, and Turk- 

 istan, were the birthplace and normal home 

 of the Rinderpgst. It is not there, however, 

 the formidable and malignant disease which it 

 becomes in moving westward. It is never 

 absent from these great pasture grounds, but 

 it is said not more than one-half of the animals 

 affected by it die there, while in Hungary and 

 Galicia, which are visited by it every six or seven 

 years, the mortality is 65 per cent., and in Eng- 

 land and Western Europe it is not less than 

 90 per cent. 





