Sanitary Police and the Cattle-Plague. 
355 
bers of the veterinary profession in Russia continue to be divided, 
for while some still advocate it, others stronjjlj disapprove of it ; 
and after long and costly experiments the Russian Government 
has renounced it. The results of these experiments give a mean 
mortality of 13 per cent., even amongst the herds of the Steppes, 
and this mortality is sometimes increased to 50 per cent., as was 
the case in 1860 and 1863 at Orenbourg and K^hersoa. The 
International Conference has, therefore, enunciated the opinion 
that, in the country where the cattle-plague is endemic, there is 
nothing to authorize inoculation being prescribed as a measure 
which has been proved to possess real economic advantages. 
As to the application of this so-called preventive method to 
the cattle of Central and Western Europe, the Conference has 
pronounced the opinion that it must be absolutely repudiated, 
because it would be too fertile in disasters. In fact, an abstract 
of the documents relating to the inoculations that have been 
practised in Central and Western Europe during 120 years gives a 
mean mortality of 18 to 19 per cent. This would cause at the 
outset a deliberate loss of 1,900,000 head of cattle in France 
alone, taking its bovine population to be about 10 millions.* 
But the cattle-plague itself, even under conditions so favourable 
to its spread as those under which it recently invaded our ter- 
ritory, and with means so insufficient to oppose the principle of 
its propagation, did not cause a loss of more than 35,000 animals, 
dead and slaughtered. A comparison of these figures will 
prevent the necessity of any long commentary ; as they give of 
themselves the measure of the practical value of inoculation 
applied as a preventive measure out of Russia. 
It being acknowledged that Russian cattle are more or less 
certain to contract the plague — either by the fatality of its origin, 
or, more likely, over a great extent of territory, by the fatality 
of contagion, to which it is difficult to oppose an efficacious 
barrier in the actual economic condition of the country, — it was 
not possible! to permit the free exportation of Russian beasts. 
It was, however, discussed by the Conference whether it is neces- 
sary to interdict absolutely this exportation, and even this question 
was answered in the affirmative by the delegates of Germany, the 
frontiers of which are closed to Russian cattle. In Germany, this 
regulation is practicable in consequence of the Custom-house 
service, and the distinctive characters of the Steppe cattle from 
those of the native races of the German provinces which 
are adjacent to the Russian frontier. But if, under such con- 
* The number of cattle of all ages in France, according to the statistics of 
186G, was 12,733,188. 
t These and some other statements should be read with the qualification "in 
ithe opinion of the Conference," as distinguished from the practice of the Govern- 
ments. — Edit. 
2 A 2 
