Prevalence in Holland and Britain. 3 



tlie mortality was high, all point toward the probable ex- 

 istence of this plague at that remote epoch. Equally in- 

 definite are the reports of the ancient Greek veterinari- 

 ans, and stiU more so those of the Eoman writers on 

 bucolics. At a later date Valentini describes a fatal lung 

 disease of cattle which all acknowledge to have reference 

 to the I/ung Plague, and from this time onward the rec- 

 ords of the disease become more frequent and definite. 

 The modern history of the malady may, however, be all 

 summed up in this, that whenever the commissariat de- 

 mands of a large army led to the aggregation of cattle 

 from all quarters, and especially from the east of Europe, 

 then this and other animal plagues have gaiaed a wide 

 extension. 



Into Holland the Lung Plague was imported in 1833 

 from Prussia by a distiller, Vanderbosch in Gelderland. 

 In 1835 it was conveyed thence to Utrecht, thence to 

 South Holland, North Brabant, West Flanders, Drenthe, 

 Groningen, Overyssel, and finally in 1842 to Friesland. 

 Destruction of the sick, by order of the government, was 

 resorted to, and Friesland was freed from the plague un- 

 til 1845, when it was again introduced in cattle from 

 Overyssel in connection with the active traffic established 

 by the demands for the British trade. Another effort 

 was made to kill out the disease, but the trade had grown 

 to great proportions, and as often as it was crushed in 

 one district it re-appeared in a new locality. After 1847 

 the attempt was abandoned, and the malady spread with 

 increasing rapidity. In the last six months of 1847 there 

 were but 16 stables infected ; in 1848 58 different out- 

 breaks occurred. By 1863 between 5,000 and 6,000 of the 

 14,000 cow-stables in Friesland had suffered from the 

 disease, and the annual mortality had risen from 5.25 per 

 thousand in 1850 to nearly 40 per thousand. 



From Holland it was imported into Cork, Ireland, in 

 1889 by Dutch cows sent by the British Consul at the 



