212 
The Outbreak of Cattle-Plague. 
was stated that ' on Saturday, January 13th, a train of about 
100 oxen arrived from Goslar, in the Hartz mountains, [for 
shipment to London. The beasts were found ill by the town 
veterinary inspector, and on the 14th rinderpest of an aggravated 
form broke out among them, so it is said. They have all been 
killed and the carcasses destroyed. The street in which the 
stable they were kept in was situated, has been cut off from all 
communication, and a cordon of soldiers placed to guard it.' 
"A Reuter's telegram, dated Berlin, January 17th (evening), 
says: — 'The "Official Gazette" announces an outbreak of 
cattle-plague on the property belonging to the Concordia sugar 
refinery, near Brieg, in the province of Silesia.' 
" On account of the further extension of the disease in Ger- 
many, and the possibility that infected cattle might be passed 
hitherwards through Belgium and France, an Order in Council 
was passed and published on the 19th January, whereby those 
countries weie placed under the same regulations as Germany ; 
the Governments of Denmark and the Netherlands being at the 
same time informed that those countries would be brought under 
the provisions of the Act, unless they prohibited the importation 
and transit of animals from Germany. Subsequently it was 
considered necessary to make the regulation apply to both Den- 
mark and Holland. 
" As soon as cattle-plague was detected in the cargo of animals 
that arrived at Deptford on the 15th January, they were isolated, 
and locked in one detached block of buildings, where no one 
could enter or leave without the sanction of the market superin- 
tendent. A wide roadway separated this from any other portion 
of the market, in addition to which quantities of quicklime 
were placed at the different doors, so that anyone entering or 
leaving the premises must walk through it. On the following 
day the work of slaughter and the destruction of the carcasses 
was commenced. Special men were told off for the purpose, 
and not allowed to leave the building without changing their 
clothes ; and a fumigator was at work disinfecting the clothes 
they had worn while at work. The mode of destroying the 
carcasses adopted was to quarter them and subject them to the 
prolonged action of steam in a large iron cylinder, until very 
little of the carcass remained. 
" On visiting the market on January 18th, I considered, from 
the precautions taken, that there was no chance of the malady 
spreading, and that, as had been the case before, in 1872, when 
cattle affected with rinderpest were landed at Deptford, the 
contagion never spread beyond the market. In the present 
instance we have been more unfortunate, and cattle-plague now 
exists among dairy-cows in the Limehouse district. 
