CATTLE PLAGUES 289 



in 1865 England was invaded by the rinderpest, which spread 

 with alarming rapidity, killing 2,000 cows in a month from 

 its first appearance, and within six months infecting thirty-six 

 counties. 1 The alarm was general, and town and country 

 meetings were held in the various districts where the disease 

 appeared to concert measures of defence. The Privy Council 

 issued an order empowering Justices to appoint inspectors 

 authorized to seize and slaughter any animal labouring under 

 such diseases ; but, in spite of this, the plague raged with 

 redoubled fury throughout September. There was gross 

 mismanagement in combating it, for the inspectors were often 

 ignorant men, and no compensation was paid for slaughter, 

 so that farmers often sold off most of their diseased stock 

 before hoisting the black flag. The ravages of the disease 

 in the London cowhouses was fearful, as might be expected 

 and they are said to have been left empty ; by no means an 

 unmixed evil, as the keeping of cowhouses in towns was 

 a glaring defiance of the most obvious sanitary laws. In 

 October a Commission was appointed to investigate the 

 origin and nature of the disease, and the first return showed 

 a total of 17,673 animals attacked. By March 9, 1866, 

 117,664 animals had died from the plague, and 26,135 been 

 killed in the attempt to stay it. By the end of August the 

 disease had been brought within very narrow limits, and was 

 eventually stamped out by the resolute slaughter of all 

 infected animals. By November 24 the number of diseased 

 animals that had died or been killed was 209,332^ and the 

 loss to the nation was reckoned at .3,000,000. The disease 

 was brought by animals exported from Russia, who came 

 from Revel, via the Baltic, to Hull. In 1872, cattle brought 

 to the same port infected the cattle of the East Riding of 

 Yorkshire, but this outbreak was checked before much damage 

 had been done, and since 1877 there has been no trace of 

 this dreaded disease in the kingdom. The cattle plague, 

 1 R. A.S. E. Journal (2nd ser.), ii. 230. a Ibid. iii. 430. 



