Sanitary Police and the Cattle-Plague. 
353 
at tlie outset, as it differs completely from the ordinary rule in 
such cases, namely, that, notwithstanding the large number of 
members of the Conference, and of the questions to be considered, 
the decisions formulated in their ' Report on the Principles 
which should serve as the Basis of International Regulations 
against the Cattle- Plague ' were adopted unanimously, with the 
exception of two cases of secondary importance, on which the 
agreement was not so complete. 
Tliis perfect accord, which is by no means customary in mat- 
ters relating to medical science, is a consequence of the fact that 
there now exists no divergence of opinion as to the foreign nature 
of the cattle-plague in reference to Central and Western Europe, nor 
as to the mode in which it is propagated. We are now thoroughly 
convinced that outside the Russian empire it is never developed 
spontaneously, no matter what may be the breed of cattle, not 
I excepting even that of the Steppes. Consequently, whenever 
cattle-plague appears elsewhere, it is because it has been imported 
bv some means or another. We also know equally well that, 
when it remains for a longer or shorter time in a country 
that it has invaded, it is kept up solely by means of contagion, 
that it cannot be perpetuated otherwise, and that it becomes 
extinct when it can no longer be communicated to other 
' animals. It is, therefore, necessary to repeat, contrary to the 
opinion of some physicians, that the cattle-plague cannot become 
an indigenous malady in our country, under the influence of what 
is somewhat obscurely termed an epidemic nature. A hundred 
and twenty years ago it persisted in England for thirteen years 
consecutively, because it was not known how to get rid of it ; 
but the phantom of epidemicity is not slow to vanish when it is 
decided to attack the contagion and to annul its effects. 
The same fact was reproduced in the same country in the year 
1866, and in a manner still more flagrant. When, in that year, 
the cattle-plague was imported through the channels of com- 
merce, people persisted in ignoring its origin, and in considering 
it an indigenous disease developed by the exceptional heat of the 
season. Under the impression of this false idea they refused, for 
three long months, to apply the sanitary measures, the certain 
efficacy of which had been attested by the experience of the 
Continent. Thus England and Scotland suffered immense losses. 
But when, finally, the error was recognised, and Parliament 
had passed a Bill which empowered the English authorities to 
slaughter, in the cause of the public interest, animals which 
could convey the contagion, or enlarge the focus of the disease, 
then — and this is a thing apparently very remarkable, and by no 
means common in the annals of medical science — the epizootic 
disease, which was in its full destructive activity, was not slow 
VOL. VIII. — S. 8. ' 2 A 
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