168 
THE EPIDEMIC AMONG CATTLE. 
To the Editor of “ The Times.” 
Sir, — YOUR correspondent has done good service to the farmers, 
agriculturists, and proprietors of cattle in this country, by drawing 
attention to the formidable disease among cattle which is now 
making such destructive ravages on the continent, and by his sug- 
gestions that Government should take the subject into their con- 
sideration. 
The French Government has already taken preventive means as 
far as possible to stop the introduction of this disease, and that of 
Prussia has established quarantines in order to prevent its spread- 
ing in the Prussian provinces — -measures which, when we consider 
the fatal results in former years, both in Germany and France, 
from the terrible malady which invaded the two countries, cannot but 
be considered highly prudent and wise. If the English Govern- 
ment were to adopt some such precautionary means to prevent 
its introduction into our own country through the medium of the 
importations which daily arrive at our ports, they would probably 
prevent evils of a magnitude too serious even for contemplation — 
namely, a dire fatality among our cattle similar to what devastated 
Germany and France in the years 1814, 1815, and 1816, when 
100,000,000 head of cattle perished in the former country ; and in 
the latter the same disease, in consequence of having been intro- 
duced by the foreign cattle which accompanied the invading armies, 
occasioned a loss of 100,000,000 f. 
We have already in this country a contagious epizootic disease, 
known by the name of pleuro- pneumonia, which, when once fairly 
introduced into a herd of cattle, is rarely extirpated till the whole 
stock is swept away or destroyed. If, in addition to this, we should 
have the continental “ murrain, or “contagious typhous fever,” im- 
ported to our shores, we may well ask with M. Noll, Professor of 
Agriculture at the Conservatory of Arts and Sciences, “ what will 
be the result of the invasion of our territory by this destructive 
scourge I If the losses should be confined to the cattle destroyed by 
it, agriculturists might expect to recover after a short period ; but 
there is even a more disastrous effect to be apprehended. Land 
produces only in proportion to the manure given to it, and the 
diminution of manure caused by the mortality consequent on the 
epidemic must produce an alarming deficiency in our harvests.” 
There is, also, another important point in which such a con- 
tingency should be viewed. Might not a fatality caused by such 
a malignant disease seriously affect the sanatory condition of the 
country, by throwing into the market a superabundance of un- 
