276 
REPORT ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 
the chief course of the river Elbe, and showed that all the 
countries through which it flows were entirely free from the 
rinderpest, a result equally as satisfactory as that which had 
previously been ascertained with reference to the Weser. 
Prussia. 
Finding that the rinderpest had no existence in the coun- 
tries we had already passed through, we proceeded to Berlin 
with # view of going to Konigsburg, and thence into Cour- 
land, as, according to the information we were at present in 
possession of, it was here that the malady was prevailing to 
some considerable extent. 
Arriving at Berlin, we first called on the professors of the 
Veterinary School, who, by virtue of their appointments 
under Government, are always put in possession of the latest 
information with regard to the existence and extent of con- 
tagious diseases among domesticated animals. From them 
we learned that the entire district we had proposed to visit 
was now perfectly free from the pest, and that, if it existed 
anywhere in Prussia, it would probably be found in the 
neighbourhood of Breslau, in the province of Silesia. They 
also further informed us that there was but little chance of 
our being able to study the nature and symptoms of the pest 
in any part of the Prussian dominions, from the summary 
proceedings which are invariably had recourse to, for its im- 
mediate extirpation, and that for the purpose of seeing the 
malady in its different stages, we should have to go into 
Austro-Poland, or some other part of the Austrian empire, 
where the laws are somewhat less stringent, and not so 
rigorously enforced as in Prussia. We ascertained also that 
in all probability, in the event of our succeeding in obtaining 
an entrance within the Prussian military cordon, we should 
not be allowed to repass it in a less period than three weeks, 
and even then we should most likely have to leave the clothes 
we had worn behind us, besides having ourselves to undergo 
a disinfecting progress. 
Under these circumstances we sought an interview with 
Lord Augustus Loftus, her Majesty^s Charge d' Affaires, in 
the absence of Lord Blomfield, minister at Berlin, with a 
view 7 of obtaining from the Government of Prussia the latest 
particulars w r ith regard to the location of the malady, and 
that amount of assistance and protection which we needed 
for the speedy fulfilment of our mission. 
This interview was at once granted, and w 7 e w^ere most 
courteously received by his lordship, w 7 ho manifested the live- 
