140 



CATTLE PLAGUE. 



holds out hopes that means may be discovered 

 to mitigate the intensity of the virus. Although 

 none of these inoculated animals died in 1854, 

 and few even sickened, they were all found to 

 be efficiently protected against future attacks 

 of the disease. Many of them were confined 

 in the same sheds with beasts suffering from 

 the Rinderpest at intervals for several years, 

 but none of them received the contagion. In. 

 1857 the Grand Duchess Helen founded an in- 

 stitution for inoculation on her property of 

 Karlowkaiu Pultava, with such success that only 

 three per cent, of the inoculated animals died. 

 It must, however, be distinctly borne in mind 

 that these favorable results have only been ob- 

 tained with oxen of the steppe race. Cattle of 

 other races are much more unfavorably disposed 

 to inoculation. Before mitigation of the virus 

 appears in their case, it must pass through from 

 thirteen to fifteen generations. Drouyn de 

 L'Huys, in his proposal for a Sanitary Congress 

 at Constantinople, with the view of damming 

 up cholera at its source, so that it may not reach 

 Europe, has given us a hint which might be 

 well applied to the cattle plague. Why should 

 Central and Western Europe be periodically 

 devastated by this murrain, when it might be 

 prevented by the inoculation of the cattle in the 

 steppes ? Sheep and goats, it has been ascer- 

 tained, can be rapidly inoculated from cattle. 

 Sometimes they resist the disease, but generally 

 the sheep have it in the most virulent form, 

 and die. The disease does not seem, according 

 to the experiments of Professor Roll of Vienna, 

 to be mitigated by passing through the sheep, 

 in whatever number of generations it may be 

 tried ; at least, the virus shows its full malig- 

 nity when it is taken from the sheep and again 

 tried upon cattle. 



The first appearance of the cattle plague in 

 England during the past year was at Lambeth, 

 in the metropolitan district of London, on the 

 24th of June, and at Islington and Hackney on 

 the 27th of June. The source whecce it was 

 introduced is a little uncertain, some authori- 

 ties asserting that it came by a cargo of Kussian 

 cattle imported from Eevel a short time before 

 the plague was manifested, while others con- 

 tend that it came from Holland, through the 

 ports of which Hungarian cattle are sent to the 

 English market as Dutch beasts, and many cir- 

 cumstances favor the assumption that the latter 

 was the route by which it was brought. The 

 Russian cattle had been two weeks on their way 

 from Russia to Hull, were pronounced sound and 

 free from disease by two veterinary surgeons, 

 who examined them carefully on their landing 

 there, on the 28th of May, and no case of the dis- 

 ease occurred until the 24th of June, twenty-six 

 days later ? and then not among these animals. 

 As the period of incubation rarely if ever exceeds 

 nine days, it seems absurd to suppose that they 

 could have introduced the disease. On the 

 other hand, her Majesty's Consul-General at 

 Hamburg states that Hungarian cattle did in- 

 troduce the Rinderpest into Utrecht in Holland 



in May, and the constant exportation of cattle 

 from that country to England, includes many 

 Hungarian animals. It is certain that the dis- 

 ease appeared first in newly imported Dutch 

 cows. Its spread into the English counties 

 from the metropolis was very speedy. Early 

 in July, Norfolk and many of the other counties 

 had had cases of it, and in some instances its 

 ravages had been frightful. In London, of 

 about 15,000 cattle in the city and vicinity, full 

 12,000 perished by October, including entire 

 dairies like those of Lord Granville and Miss 

 Burdett Coutts, notwithstanding the utmost 

 care and medical attention. Notwithstanding 

 the utmost care to prevent its spreading, the 

 facilities for its transmission were such that 

 in a short time nearly all the English counties, 

 and most of those of the lowlands in Scotland, 

 were visited by the plague, and could trace it 

 directly to its source in London. It was pecu- 

 liarly malignant in its character, not over four 

 per cent, of the cattle attacked recovering. The 

 Government acted with commendable prompt- 

 ness in .the matter, the Lords of the Privy 

 Council holding frequent meetings, and issuing 

 their first Order in Council on the 24th of July, 

 and subsequent ones on the llth, 18th, 25th, 

 and 26th of August and the 22d of September. 

 These Orders in Council were generally similar 

 in character to those issued in 1746, requiring 

 the local authorities (the justices, &c.) to ap- 

 point inspectors in all cases where the disease 

 appeared, and prohibiting the removal of any 

 diseased cattle, or those which had been ex- 

 posed to infection, without a license from the 

 inspector. They also authorized the inspector 

 to seize and slaughter, or cause to be slaugh- 

 tered, any animal laboring under such disease, 

 and provided for the burial in deep graves, 

 with quicklime and the slashing of the hides of 

 such animals, and the use of quicklime upon 

 the carcasses, as well as the thorough disinfec- 

 tion of all the premises where the disease had 

 prevailed. The exportation of cattle to Ireland 

 and to the Island of Lewis was also prohibited. 

 These measures proving ineffectual, owing to 

 the apathy and inefficiency of the local authori- 

 ties in many parts of the kingdom, a Royal 

 Commission was issued by the Queen on the 

 29th of September, addressed to certain rnem- 

 mers of both Houses of Parliament, and men 

 of scientific and medical attainments, requiring 

 them to investigate into the origin and nature 

 of the disease, and to frame regulations with a 

 view of preventing its spread, and of averting 

 any future outbreak of it. The names of these 

 commissioners were: Earl Spencer, K.G., Lord 

 Cranborne, MTP., Right Hon. Robert Lowe, 

 M.P., Lyon Playfair, C.B., C. S. Read, M.P., 

 R. Quain, M.D., Bence Jones, M.D., E. A. 

 Parkes, M.D., Thomas Worraald, President of 

 College of Surgeons, Robert Ceely, Surgeon, 

 Charles Spooner, Principal of Veterinary Col- 

 lege, and J. R. McClean, President of Institu 

 tution of Civil Engineers, with Mr. Montagu 

 Bernard, Secretary. 



