18 EINDERPEST. 



the conclusion) the only animals which could have conveyed 

 Eiuderpest directly to English stock were brought into the 

 Metropolitan market ; from which those that developed the 

 contagion earliest were sent to three places, two in Eng- 

 land and one in Holland, where it was definitely recog- 

 nized. And although an interval of nineteen days has to be 

 accounted for, there seems to be little difficulty in accepting 

 the theory of Prof. Simonds (1st Eeport, 1-20), that the pesti- 

 lence was in its state of incubation in one or more of the 

 thirteen animals sent down from St. Petersburg to fill out 

 the contract of the Esthonian Society ; that it was developed 

 in the lot brought to the Metropolitan market ; thence spread 

 to Mrs. Nichols' lairs at Islington, and to Mr. Baldwin's 

 farm at Hackney, on or before the 20th of June, and through 

 the Dutch cattle into Norfolk early in July. Even if the 

 impression, as communicated by the English Consul-General 

 at Hamburg (1st Kep., p. 7), and based upon the ojunion of 

 Mr. Schrader, a veterinary in the special employ of the 

 Hamburg government, be correct, that the Einderpest was 

 developed by Hungarian cattle sent from Vienna to Utrecht 

 early in May ; this would require proof of the transmission 

 of some of these cattle, or of others infected by them, to the 

 Metropolitan market in order to account for the earliest 

 observed outbreaks of the plague which we have given. If 

 true, this theory would only show a double source of infec- 

 tion concentrating at a common point and thence to be dif- 

 fused. Suffice it to say, that in a very short space of time 

 from its outbreak in Islington, the Einderpest appeared in 

 Suflblk and Shropshire. Before the end of July it had 

 invaded Scotland,* and by the 14th of October it had ex- 

 tended into twenty-nine counties in England, two in Wales 

 and sixteen in Scotland, and resulted in six months in a loss 

 of two hundred thousand animals, and within nine months of 

 three hundred thousand at the lowest calculation ; an enormous 



 Prof. Dick says that the Infection in Edinburgh came ft-om a herd of Dutch cattle brought 

 down from London, two of which were bought by a cow-feeder named Ogg, and lodged in his 

 byres; and that these developed the disease on the 8th of August, all the animals Ogg had 

 dying except the two foreign cattU, which rtcovered. (Ist Rep,, p. ISO.) 



