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EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
respects the history of the disease, and its probable conse- 
quences, and offering suggestions of a prophylactic nature. 
To these we must refer our readers. We adopt one from 
the leading daily journal. 
“ Precautions have at length been taken against the in- 
troduction into England of the infectious disease which is 
destroying the cattle of the Baltic countries. An Order in 
Council was published on Saturday, prohibiting the importa- 
tion of cattle, or of horns, hoofs, hides, or skins, from those 
territories of Russia, Prussia, or Mecklenburg-Schwerin 
which lie on the Gulf of Finland, or between the Gulf and 
the city of Lubeck. It cannot be said that this prohibition 
is too stringent, or comes too early. Certainly an order 
which limits the supply of human food is a strong measure, 
but the case admitted neither of compromise nor delay. It 
was necessary to exclude rigidly and at once anything which 
could bring on the country so terrible a calamity as a mor- 
tality among the animals used for food. The disease which 
has necessitated these precautions has ravaged Silesia, 
Mecklenburg, and part of Holstein for two or three years, 
and has latterly assumed a type so deadly as to rouse the 
apprehension of the principal Governments of the Continent. 
The Governments of France, Prussia, and some of the 
smaller German States have already made regulations for 
the exclusion of the tainted cattle, or any part of their car- 
cases. Our insular position gives us greater chance of im- 
munity, but does not free us from the necessity of taking 
some precautions. 
“ The exclusion of cattle coming from Baltic ports will, no 
doubt, tend to raise in some degree the price of meat, but 
this evil is not for a moment to be balanced against the de- 
liverance from the scourge of murrain within these islands. 
The importations from abroad, though they seem large in 
returns, form but a very small part of the supply necessary 
for the population. England and Ireland are pre-eminently 
grazing countries ; the meat they produce is far superior to 
that of the Continent, and the quantity beyond all com- 
parison greater than anything that the German ports can 
