ACCOUNT OF THE EPIDEMIC AMONG CATTLE. 269 
under suspicion; for if any such means of an efficient nature ex- 
isted, their employment has been retarded in consequence of the 
difficulty anticipated in putting them in practice on a great scale, 
and also because all suspected animals are immediately slaughtered. 
“As soon as a case of epidemic occurs in any part of the Austrian 
dominions, every animal of the same establishment is required to 
be immediately killed and buried whole, without being cut up. 
Before such step, however, is taken, the proprietor of the stock is 
held bound to communicate the fact of the appearance of the epi- 
demic among them to the knowledge of the sanatary commission, 
which at once delegates a veterinarian, accompanied by the local 
authority, and an appraising commissioner. 
“ These delegates divide the stock into three classes : — 1st. Dis- 
eased animals; 2d. Suspected animals; and 3d, Healthy animals. 
The appraising commissioner estimates the value of the stock in 
the two latter classes, and the proprietor of them is indemnified 
solely on account of the suspected and the healthy animals. For 
the former of these — the suspected ones — he receives one-third, 
one-half, or two-thirds of the estimated value; for the latter — the 
healthy — he is paid the whole value. It is only after such an in- 
quiry that the whole stock of any given establishment is put to 
death. This slaughtering takes place without any escape of the 
blood of the animals. 
“ In spite of these positive prescriptions of the government, it is 
astonishing to find announcements in the public papers of cases 
of restoration to health in the animals that have been attacked by 
the disease — circumstances which would lead to the supposition 
that the regulations were either not general and uniform, or that 
they were not duly enforced. 
“ The greatest possible cleanliness is enjoined by the sanitary 
commission in the places where the stock is kept ; and it has been 
remarked that the cold weather has had a favourable influence on 
the health of the animals. It has been asserted that, in Austria, a 
disease of the same nature as this has affected the hares and foxes 
of the country. The government, however, denies this circum- 
stance in the most formal manner.” 
Professor Sewell, who happened to be present at this meeting, 
remarked that the cause of epidemics, in any form or in any 
country, attacking animals, proceeded in the first instance from 
malarious emanations from the ground on which they gathered 
their food, and on which they slept; that, at such time it was 
inhaled undiluted with atmospheric air, and was also received 
by cutaneous absorption, especially during the night. He con- 
sidered that the house-stock were more affected by modifications 
of the symptoms, the disorder in some assuming the character 
