CATTLE PLAGUES 289 



in 1865 England was invaded by the rinderpest, which spread 



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



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



counties.^ 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, 



' R. A. S.E. Journal {2nd s&r.),\\. 2^0. ' Ibid. iii. 430. 



CURTI.ER U 



