400 
REPORT ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 
and it appears more than probable that the wide diffusion of 
the “ steppe murrain” which has occurred within the last 
three years has depended entirely upon this cause. 
The ordinary traffic in cattle leads, it is true, to the annual 
removal of large herds from the steppes; and hence the 
outbreaks of the rinderpest in those countries which are 
otherwise free from it can often be traced to the animals 
which find their way there from the various fairs and markets. 
No cause, however, is so potent in the spread of the disease 
as the outbreak of a Russian war; and consequently, when- 
ever circumstances have required the passage of her troops 
over the frontier, the pest has manifested itself in a far more 
extensive form. 
Thus it is recorded that, “ during the Russo-Turkish war 
in 1827 and 1828, the Russian cattle which were sent for 
the supply of the army carried the murrain w r ith them, and 
that it destroyed no less than 30,000 head of cattle in 
Hungary, 12,000 in Galicia, and 9000 in Moravia. 
Again in 1831, 1832, and 1833, in consequence of the 
Polish insurrection, the disease committed great ravages in 
that country, causing considerable distress. At this period 
it also crossed the Prussian frontier, in the department of 
Bromberg and, although quickly exterminated, swept away 
nearly 1000 head of cattle. 
In 1849-30, the malady again prevailed to a very great 
extent in Hungary, its introduction being due, according to 
the official report of MM. Renault and Imlin, commissioners 
appointed by the French Government to inquire into the 
subject, to the passage of the Russian troops from Wallachia 
by way of Transylvania. 
Very shortly also after the army of Russia was sent to 
occupy the Principalities, rumours of the cattle-plague be- 
came current; and we find that as early as 1854, the disease 
had made considerable progress both in Volhynia and Podo- 
lia. From that period nearly down to the present, the 
malady gradually extended itself, until it reached most of 
the countries in eastern Europe, and some parts even of 
Asia Minor. From the Principalities it can be traced in a 
northerly and westerly direction into Moravia, Galicia, 
Poland, Prussia, Lithuania, &c.; easterly, into Bessarabia, 
Southern Russia, and the Crimea ; as also into Turkey, and 
to the southern shore of the Black Sea. 
We have not been able to arrive at any correct estimate of 
the immense losses these several countries sustained in con- 
sequence of this visitation ; but it has been officially reported 
that no less than 26,442 head of cattle were destroyed in the 
