Report on the Cattle Disease in the Island of Ci/prus. 465 
cattle. Eacli time the inspector visited the village, which was 
almost daily, all the animals in the first stable were slaughtered 
and deeply buried in quicklime, along with their hides and 
dung. The stable or premises from which the sick animals 
were taken when transferred to the hospital were thoroughly 
cleaned out, the walls whitewashed, and the dung and rubbish 
buried in quicklime, and no animal was allowed to enter the 
place for twenty days. All dogs found loose, whether belonging 
to the infected village or others, were shot. 
I am certain that these measures would have proved thoroughly 
effectual in stopping the progress of the disease, but, unfortu- 
nately, so soon as it was mastered in one locality it appeared in 
quite a different one ; and it was ultimately discovered that it 
had been brought there by cattle driven from villages that had 
been infected with the disease, but which were at that time 
quite free from it. 
As attempts were frequently made to drive animals from 
unhealthy districts to healthy ones, mounted zaptiehs were 
appointed to patrol the frontiers, and a list of the cattle belong- 
ing to the various villages was obtained from the head-men of 
the same. These lists were checked by the inspectors each 
time they visited the villages, and the head-men were held 
responsible for any missing cattle. 
One of my first cares on discovering the disease in Deme- 
trion's khan was to ascertain how it reached the island. I may 
mention here that this is the first time Cyprus has been visited 
by cattle-plague. Indeed, with the exception of small-pox 
among sheep and goats, which was brought here by animals 
imported from Caramania in 1873, and mange on camels, 
brought from Mersyna in 1871, this is the only time that a 
contagious disease of any kind among animals has visited the 
island. There has not even been a single case of hydrophobia 
here. 
It was generally supposed that the cattle-disease was brought 
to Cyprus either by cattle imported from Russia by the con- 
tractor for the supply of meat to the troops at Polymedia, or by 
chopped straw, which at that time was imported from Syria in 
large quantities to meet the daily increasing demand for forage. 
I carefully examined these two theories, with the following 
result. 
The contractor Rees had been bringins: cattle to the island 
for some time previous to the outbreak of the disease, without 
any of the animals having ever shown signs of sickness. With 
reference to the last lot that he landed at Larnaca previous to 
the discovery of the existence of the malady, I obtained the 
following information, substantiated by proof. 
VOL. XVI. — S. S. 2 H 
