414 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
those countries which are contiguous to the Steppes the 
malady has no such origin, and its appearance therein is 
invariably associated with the introduction of Steppe cattle in 
the ordinary course of traffic. 
Like smallpox and other allied affections, it lies dormant 
for a time in the system, during which the animal gives no 
indication of ill health. The period of incubation is found to 
vary, many animals sickening on the seventh day after ex- 
posure, and others not until the thirteenth or fourteenth. 
Some are said even to pass to the twentieth day before giving 
evidence of the malady. Such cases are few and may possibly 
depend on a secondary exposure to the infection rather than on 
so great a variation in the periods of incubation. No doubt, 
however, should be allowed to remain on a point like this, as 
on it depends the security to be afforded to other countries 
where the malady has not a spontaneous beginning. Austria, 
which suffers almost annually from this disease in some parts 
of her dominions, has an especial interest in the question, and 
should lose no time in effecting its complete and satisfactory 
solution. In our opinion Austria should appoint a com- 
mission of scientific men, and vest it with some of her absolute 
power to conduct experiments and take every necessary means 
of determining the question in a conclusive manner; which 
will be for the benefit of other countries as well as herself, and 
she will then both deserve and receive the thanks of the world. 
What the existing visitation may have cost her has }^et to 
be ascertained ; but no less than 26,442 head of cattle are 
officially reported as being lost in the year preceding the 
present one. It has also been said that on the occasion of 
the Russo-Turkish war in 1827 and 1828, no less than 30,000 
cattle were destroyed in Hungary, 12,000 in Galicia, and 
9,000 in Moravia ; so that the wonder becomes the greater 
that she should allow any point connected with the pathology 
of the disease still to remain in doubt. We will not anticipate 
the official report of our own inquiries, now in the course of 
preparation, by entering into further details, but content 
ourselves on this occasion by giving an outline of the 
symptoms and post-mortem appearances of the disease. 
