THE CATTLE EPIDEMIC. 615 
carrion may, it is said, convey the infection, as likewise herdsmen, 
by carrying along with them mephitic effluvia in their clothes. 
With greater reason is the ground considered to be contagious 
over which diseased cattle have passed, and even ponds and wells 
where they have been watered, on the surface of which the mucous 
discharges float like an oily substance. That cattle may be pre- 
served from infection by the prevention of all dangerous contact 
has been proved in several instances known to myself ; and 1 am 
told further, that, on a separation of the sick from each other, reco- 
veries become more frequent. 
I am intimate with a gentleman who holds a small estate near 
Akerman, in Bessarabia, his lands resting by two sides on the 
Leinan of the Dneister and the sea. He was the more easily ena- 
bled to shut out communication with all stray cattle, in consequence 
of which his own stock was entirely saved, while that in the im- 
mediate neighbourhood all perished ; for in no other part of the 
country was the disease more violent. 
I am acquainted with another person, with a large estate in the 
government of Cherson, who escaped loss by similar precautions. 
Previously to the breaking out of the disease he had sold produce 
to be taken away by the purchasers; and, rather than allow strange 
bullocks to come upon his grounds, he voluntarily undertook the 
labour and expense of the delivery upon an assigned and distant 
spot. 
I know a district in the Taurida that was entirely free from the 
disease, till two yoke of oxen came with goods from a distant 
quarter to the estate of a lady. It broke out there a few days after, 
upon which the neighbouring proprietors, with the consent of all 
parties, instituted measures by which it was confined to that one 
place, where it soon wore itself out. These instances, and many 
similar, bear upon the power of contagion ; but there are others 
equally notorious, from which the same inferences cannot be drawn. 
An estate of 15,000 acres, about twelve miles from Odessa, was 
divided last year between three brothers. The share upon the high 
road was early infected, and of eighty-five head of horned cattle 
thirty-two quickly perished. 
The second share was not immediately attacked, for the dis- 
ease went round and destroyed 800 in a Bulgarian colony, and a 
great number in other estates close to the back of it ; and it was 
not till two months later that the infection reached that share, and 
carried off twenty-five beasts out of the eighty. 
But, strange to say, the third share has entirely escaped to the 
present day, though contiguous, and no precautions were taken in 
either case against communication, and its produce was carried to 
market without interruption. 
