102 
REPORT ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 
or between the Gulf and the city of Liibeck,” might be found 
to require an immediate extension to other countries, or pos- 
sibly we might ascertain that a relaxation of it could be made 
without the incurrence of a greater risk of the disease being 
introduced. We therefore commenced our inquiries in 
Belgium. 
Our investigations here fully confirmed the statement 
made by Lord Howard de Walden, her Majesty’s am- 
bassador at Brussels, in his despatch to Lord Clarendon, 
dated March 20th, 1857, that this country was perfectly free 
from the rinderpest. We found that eczema epizootica 
prevailed to some extent, but not in a serious form, and that 
pleuro-pneumonia also existed in several parts of the king- 
dom. Rinderpest had not shown itself to an extent to 
create much solicitude since the Seven Years’ War, during 
which time it destroyed vast numbers of cattle. From 1813 
to 1815 some cases occurred in the district between Namur 
and Luxemberg, and which are said to have depended upon 
the passage of the Austrian army into France. The route 
taken by the army was south of the Belgian frontier, and 
near to the places in question ; and it appears that along its 
whole course the disease was manifested to a greater or less 
extent on either side of the military road. It is also said 
that the cattle belonging to the Prussian army being 
healthy, no disease followed its course through the country, 
and thus a great part of Belgium escaped the pest ; the mea- 
sures of sanitary police confining it chiefly to the neigh- 
bourhood of Namur, and the districts in which it had mani- 
fested itself. 
We refrain from commenting on these facts in this place, 
as hereafter we shall have to call attention to the freedom of 
continental states in general from the disease, unless infected 
cattle, or such as have been exposed to the contagious influ- 
ence of the malady, are introduced therein. 
At Ghent we visited a cattle fair which was held the day 
after our arrival, and had thus an opportunity of observing 
the general state and condition of animals brought from all 
parts of the kingdom, and which proved to be most satis- 
factory. From the cattle-dealers we learned that no diffi- 
culties existed in the way of the passage of cattle to or fro 
over the frontier, so long as they are healthy, but that 
restrictions would be rigidly enforced on the breaking out of 
a contagious disease. Lord Howard de Walden writes that 
“ no law exists undef* which diseased cattle can be excluded 
