8 THE LUNG PLAGUE OF CATTLE. 



flition to Moscow with half a million men, and still more in the succeeding 

 three years, when all Europe was literally in arms, arrayed" for or against 

 the French cause. The exhaustion of the different states by the con- 

 stant wars, and the decay of agriculture in consequence of the heavy 

 conscriptions, the burdensome taxation, and the devastations incident 

 to the presence of armies in the field, lessened the available supply of 

 cattle ; and this, together with the greatly increased demand for "the 

 provisioning of the armies, necessitated the drawing of live stock from 

 more distant points. Thus the commissariat drew not only on the in- 

 fected herds of the mountains and forests of Central Europe, but also 

 on the steppes of Eussia and Asia ; and with the steppe cattle Europe 

 imported the lung plague and all those Oriental bovine pestilences which 

 find a perennial home on these great and fenceless plains. 



Since this general invasion most of the countries of Central and 

 Western Europe have remained under the sway of this baneful plague. 

 It is reported as prevailing in Prussia in 1802 (Sick), and at intervals up 

 to the present time (Dieterichs, Laubender, Wagenfield, Gielen, Sau- 

 berg, Seir, Keurs, Hering, Verheyen, Gerlach, &c.). In Hanover it has 

 prevailed extensively since 1807. (Haussmann, Gerlach, &c.). In Bel- 

 gium and Holland, it was reported as all but universal from 1830 to 

 1876, causing an average mortality of 10, 15, or 25 per cent, of the entire 

 bovine population (Loiset), while in the greater part of France it has 

 been widely prevalent since the days of the first Napoleon. 



-RECENT INVASIONS IN THE CHANNELS OF COMMERCE. 



During the last half century the increasing activity of the cattle trade 

 lias taken the place of wars in the general diffusion of this plague. All 

 through Western Europe have started up immense distilleries, sugar 

 factories, &c., where the refuse products are devoted to the fattening of 

 stalled cattle. These distillery and sugar-factory stables of to-day have 

 taken the place of the army commissariat parks of the past in drawing 

 upon all available regions for supplies of cattle ; so that oxen from East- 

 ern and Central Europe are fattened in the great commercial and manu- 

 facturing centers of the West. The rapid extension of railroads has 

 lent its aid to the traffic, until to-day a lucrative and peaceful commerce 

 has become no less effective in the propagation of animal plagues than 

 the desolating wars of former ages. 



Thus the northern department of France is said to have received the 

 lung-plague infection in 1822 through cattle brought from Franche-Comte 

 for the purpose of fattening (Delflache). Belgium and Holland were simi- 

 larly infected by Flemish cattle in 1830. Holland (Gelderland) was again 

 invaded through the introduction of infected Prussian cattle by Yan- 

 derbosch, a distiller, in 1833 (Verheyeu), and from 1840 on ward, when the 

 pemands increased for the large factory stables, the plague advanced 

 with strides unprecedented for a period of peace. Zuudel says : 



In 1840 and the succeeding years, the malady made all at once an extraordinary 

 extension, invading Switzerland, Southern Germany, Alsace, and Sranche-Cornte', 

 and ravaging in the most destructive manner more than forty departments of France. 



A remarkable point in this history is the confinement of the disease 

 to Central and Western Europe, where the general wars were mostly 

 carried on, and to which cattle from the open infected forests and steppes 

 were naturally drawn ; also, where later in more peaceful times we find 

 the routes of cattle traffic from the infected districts to the great west- 

 ern centers of commerce. Sweden was constantly at war during the 

 reign of Charles XII, but this never led to the appearance of lung plague, 



