RINDERPEST 405 
It was in connection with this disease that the first veterinary 
police regulations were instituted, and it is stated that because of the 
ravages of this affection Veterinary Colleges were first established 
with government aid. In the latter half of the eighteenth century, 
rinderpest was prevalent in nearly all of the countries of Europe. 
During the years from 1740 to 1750 it was estimated that three million 
cattle died. In Italy alone, during the year 1792, from three to four 
million cattle are reported to have died from its effects. Nearly all 
the countries of Europe have from time to time lost heavily from it. 
Geographical distribution. Rinderpest is a well-known cattle 
plague in Russia and the steppes of central Asia. It has extended 
from time to time from its home in Russia and Asia to nearly every 
country in Continental Europe and Asia. More recently it has 
occurred in southern Africa. In 1882,* it appears to have been intro- 
duced into the Philippine Islands. It has not appeared in the United 
States or other American countries. 
Etiology. The specific etiological factor of rinderpest is not known. 
Koch makes the following statement concerning the etiology of rinder- 
pest in the second report of his investigations in South Africa in 1897: 
“All efforts to find by means of the microscope, as well as through 
cultivation, a specific microérganism in the blood have as yet been 
fruitless. I also did not succeed in finding any specific microérganism 
amongst the microbes which the mucus from the nose, the secretions 
from mucous membranes, and the contents of the intestines naturally 
contain in large numbers.” Jobling reports that 0.1 ce. of blood taken 
from a sick animal and injected under the skin of a healthy one will 
produce the disease. 
Nicoll and Adil-Bey found that the virus would usually pass 
through the porous Berkefeld cylinders, but not through the denser 
form or the Chamberland bougie. 
The virus may be transmitted from the sick to the healthy individ- 
uals in a variety of ways, both direct and indirect. It is said to be 
present in the various excreta of the diseased animal, such as the dis- 
charge from the nose, the saliva, the urine and the feces. 
Ward, Wood and Boynton found the virus not to survive beyond 
24 hours in corrals bare of vegetation but containing water. Animals 
became infected in such corrals seventeen and one-half hours after 
removal of the sick. They found that infected animals were capable 
*No authoritative evidence of its occurrence there prior to that time has been found. 
