NOVEMBER 393 



reduced to absolute starvation by its onslaught, and c^cn the 

 buffalo were practically exterminated — it passed southward. Last 

 year, however, unhappily it was re-introduced by some infected 

 oxen that were driven from the coast, and again killed off many 

 thousands of cattle which had been bred up since the first pest. 

 Mr. Jackson himself, who was living in the Mau district, possessed 

 a herd of two hundred and fifty cows. The disease smote them, 

 and, when it left, but twenty-five remained alive. 



It is now so long since we have had rinderpest in England^ 

 that a description of its symptoms may be of value. They are — 

 at any rate in East Africa — dry nose, with loss of cud and ulcerated 

 gums, w^iile post-mortem examination reveals inflamed and 

 ulcerated intestines, and a gall bladder swollen to the size of a 

 soda-water bottle, although the lungs appear to be quite healthy. 

 This sickness does its work very quickly. In the morning 

 the animal to all appearance will be in a state of perfect health 

 and grazing as usual, indeed the stomach is generally found to be 



' In the last century this or some similar disease seems to have ravaged 

 England very sorely, as is testified by the following petition which I have dis- 

 covered on a loose printed sheet in the leaves of a family Prayer Book bearing 

 date 1743. 



A PRAYER to be ufed Every Day immediately after the Prayer \_lVee humbly befeech 

 the, &c.] in the Litany ; or when that is not ufed, after the Prayer, For the 

 Clergy and Pofle. 



Gracious God, who in thy great Bounty to Mankind haft given them the 

 Beads of the Field for their Provifion and Nourifhment continue to us, w-e 

 humbly befeech thee, this Blefling, and fjfTer us not to be reduced to 

 Scarcity and Difttefs by the contagious Diftemper, which has raged, and ftill rages, 

 among the Cattle in many Parts of this Kingdom. In this and all other thy dif-^ 

 penfations towards us, we fee and adore the Juftice of thy Providence, and do with 

 forrowful and penitent Hearts Confefs, that our manifold Vices and Impieties have 

 defervedly provoked thine Anger and Indignation againft us. But we earneftly 

 intreat thee Almighty Father, in this our calamitious State, to look down upon us 

 with an Eye of Pity and Companion ; and if it be thy BlelTed Will, to forbid the 

 fpreaaing ol this fore Vifitation, and in thy good time to remove it from all the 

 Inhabitants of this Land, for the fake of thy Mercies in Chrift Jefus our only Saviour 

 and Redeemer, ylmen 



