464 Report on the Cattle Disease in the Island of Cyprus. 
It would take me beyond the proposed limits of this report to 
describe how the disease gradually spread to different parts of 
the island. In some instances it made its way through negli- 
gence, but in the majority of cases its progress was traced to an 
insatiable desire for gain, and an utter disregard for the regula- 
tions laid down by the authorities. Offenders against the 
ordinance were, however, nearly always discovered, and were 
prosecuted and punished, but without, unfortunately, deterring 
others from following their example, the profits which thev 
made by their illicit dealings being so large. 
The thoroughly effectual method for stamping out the disease 
by slaughtering all affected animals, as well as those suspected 
of having had any communication with them, could not, unfor- 
tunately, be adopted in its entirety at that time. His Excellency 
the High Commissioner, after considering the matter, came to 
the very just conclusion that, if a measure of that kind was put 
in vigour, it would rather help to propagate the malady than to 
check it. It would have been impossible to kill healthy animals 
on the bare suspicion of their having communicated with un- 
healthy ones, without giving their owners some kind of com- 
pensation, and it was feared, with reason, that the peasants who 
were anxious to get rid of their cattle on account of the high 
price of forage would have brought them in contact with un- 
healthy animals, or would have sought to prove that they had 
been in contact with these, in order to have their own slaugh- 
tered and receive compensation for them. 
Under these circumstances orders were given to slaughter 
only sick animals. An inspector was placed in charge of each 
infected district, and so soon as the disease appeared in a village 
over which he had control, he informed me and the Commissioner 
of the district in which the village was situated, who imme- 
diately sent a guard of zaptiehs there ; and, in accordance with 
the power that his Excellency was pleased to grant me under 
date of January 28th, 1880, the village was placed in quarantine 
pending its publication in the list of infected places in the 
' Cyprus Gazette.' All movement of cattle in or out of their 
stables or yards was prohibited ; all dogs were ordered to be 
chained up, both in the village where the disease had broken 
out and in the surrounding ones ; and two stables in the most 
isolated part of the village were set apart to serve as hospitals. 
All animals showing signs of being affected by the disease were 
located in the first stable, while all apparently healthy animals 
that had been in contact with unhealthy ones, or were suspected 
of having done so, were confined to the other. Both these 
stables were locked, and the key placed in charge of the zaptieh 
on guard, who alone had any communication with the suspected 
