160 
REPORT ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 
however, had recourse to, until 1845, when the Govern- 
ment sent Professor Witt, of Copenhagen, to investigate the 
matter. Professor Witt and Herr Rottger, with a surgeon 
and the Government veterinary surgeon of Hamburg, formed 
a sanitary commission of inquiry. The commission came to 
the conclusion that the disease was highly contagious, and 
recommended the Government to adopt the most stringent 
measures of prevention. These consist in chief of — 
a . Sequestration of the places where the disease is found 
to exist. 
b. The immediate slaughter of the infected animals. 
c. The killing of the whole herd upon the occurrence of 
fresh cases. 
d. The burial of the diseased cattle with their skins on, 
cut in such a manner as to prevent their being surreptitiously 
disposed of, and the sprinkling the body over with chloride 
of lime. 
The indemnity consists in the Government paying two 
thirds of the value of the diseased animals, and the full 
value of the healthy, the loss to the treasury being partly 
provided for by the Government selling by public auction 
the carcases of the animals which are free from disease. 
For the carrying out of these regulations, it is ordered, 
among other things, that every proprietor of cattle shall, 
upon the outbreak of a disease which seems to possess some 
unusual features, give notice to the district veterinary sur- 
geon, or be subjected to a fine varying from fifty to a hundred 
thalers. The veterinary surgeon has to report the result of 
his examination to the police, and if it should prove that the 
malady is a contagious one, then the regulations are strictly 
enforced. The animals are valued on the part of the Govern- 
ment, and branded on the horns for the purpose of identity. 
Should no other cases occur after the diseased animals are 
killed, the proprietor is still prevented selling any of those 
which had been exposed to the contagion, and which bear 
the Government stamp, in a less period of time than six 
months, and only then with a certificate from the veterinary 
surgeon that they are free from disease. 
The adoption of these severe measures led, it is believed, 
to the nearly total extinction of pleuro-pneumonia in two or 
three years. In 1847, however, it again prevailed in Hol- 
stein, also commencing, it is said, in the neighbourhood of 
Altona. In 1849 and 1851, other outbreaks occurred, the 
disease extending on the latter occasion into Schleswig and 
Denmark Proper, but was quickly suppressed by the severity 
with which the law was executed. 
