402 
REPORT ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 
ment to be thoroughly investigated by the veterinary sur- 
geon of our department within a distance of three miles from 
the boundary of our territory/’ 
“It being then ascertained that the disease was only two 
miles and a half from our frontier, we determined, at the 
beginning of November, to close the same still more strictly, 
according to section 4 of the said law. At the same time 
we ordered the district commissaries of police to inform the 
mayors of the different places of the impending calamity, 
who were not only instructed to exhort the inhabitants of 
their districts to use the greatest precaution, but also to 
give immediate notice, per express, to the councillor of 
administration of the district of every suspicious case of 
disease breaking out among the cattle.” 
“ As a further warning and instruction to the public, we 
caused copies of the circular which was issued by the chief 
magistrate of our province, under the date of 28th January, 
1845, to be printed and distributed, to which we annexed a 
description of the symptoms of the disease, and caused the 
same to be distributed as a supplement to our official paper 
(‘ Gazette’). Besides this we prohibited the attendance of 
persons at the weekly markets of the towns lying nearest to 
the threatened boundary with those species of cattle, as well 
as with other things likely to convey infection, and which 
the law of 1833 specially enumerates ; we likewise ordered 
establishments to be erected for personal purification in the 
villages wherein the frontier custom office is established; 
stationed gendarmes in the villages on our side of the 
boundary situated nearest the infected Polish districts, and 
charged the district commissaries in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood, under pain of dismissal from office, with the 
execution of the preventive measures in case the contagion 
should break out in our territory. We further empowered 
the councillors of the administration of the district to order 
the district veterinary surgeons to inspect the villages and 
places on the boundary as often as necessity required, and 
to watch over the state of the health of the cattle there.” 
Notwithstanding these precautions were rigorously adopted, 
the disease crossed the Prussian frontier ; and in the latter 
part of November, 1855, it manifested itself in the circle of 
Inowraclaw, and shortly afterwards in the circle of Gnesen, 
near the town of Posen. The official report states, that on 
this occurrence “ general measures were taken for closing the 
boundaries of the places infected, and special ones for the 
infected farmyards, by means of sentries posted under the 
superintendence of gendarmes ; quarantine stables were esta- 
