CATTLE PLAGUE. 159 



commits fearful havoc amongst stock, we can only trust that 

 the Government of this country will ever remain uninfluenced 

 by those who would wish that cattle were admitted from all 

 parts of the world without any restrictions whatever, and care- 

 fully guard our coast from another visitation of this dreadful 

 malady ; but should it again have access to our shores, there is 

 only one method of dealing with it, and that is to stamp it out, 

 by destroying all affected with it, as well as those which have 

 been in contact with them. 



In conclusion, I feel in duty bound to pay my tribute of 

 respect to Professor John Gamgee for the earnest endeavours 

 he made, as far back as 1857, to rouse up the Government to the 

 fact that this country would be visited by the cattle plague if 

 measures were not taken to prevent its entrance. I am aware 

 that Professor Gamgee received much abuse, but he was a true 

 prophetj and if he has received no other reward, has the satis- 

 faction of knowing that he has performed an important public 

 service. 



KINDEKPEST IN SHEEP. 



It was at one time affirmed that cattle only were subject to 

 the plague, " the cattle tribe Icing alone its victims." — (Simonds' 

 Report to Agricultural Society, 1857.) Experience has, however, 

 proved that sheep, though less susceptible, are still capable of 

 being affected with the plague. 



The symptoms are the same as in the ox, and any one familiar 

 with the disease in the latter animal will at once be able to 

 recognise it in the sheep. The incubative stage is more variable 

 than in cattle ; the disease induced by inoculation appears in 

 from five to eight days ; naturally caused by cohabitation or 

 contact, in from five to twenty days. Sheep kept in fields with 

 cattle suffering from the plague remain a long time unaffected 

 with the disease, many escaping it altogether; but if kept in 

 closed sheds they are almost certain to become affected in a 

 very short time. — (Professors Vaenell and Pritchard, Eeport 

 to Commissioners, 1866.) 



Experiments in Inoculation. — The upshot of all the experiments has 

 been that the operations were brought to a close, as it was found that the 

 mortality was almost as great among the inoculated ones as among those 

 that took the disease naturally. The Eussian Government thereupon 

 closed the establishments at Orenberg and Kerson. During the outbreak 

 in France in 1871 a further series of inoculations was tried with similar 

 results. In one experiment seven cattle were inoculated, and seven died, 

 but the recent experiments conducted by Koch in South Africa seem to 

 prove that the inoculation of lOcc. of bile from an animal that has died 

 from an acute attack, say a week after the initial symptoms (rise of 

 temperature, &c.) have appeared, gives immunity, but six days must elapse 

 after the inoculation before protection is afforded. After the lapse of six 

 days animals so protected could not be made to take the disease by the 

 inoculation of virulent rinderpest blood, nor from exposure to contagion 



