404 
REPORT ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 
Early in 1856 — namely, in the month of April — the disease 
also broke out in the department of Breslau, in the province 
of Silesia. For the particulars of this occurrence we are in- 
debted to Lord Loftus, to whom they were officially com- 
municated by the Prussian Government. The reports states 
that “ for forty years the department had been entirely free 
from the rinder-pest, but that the disease had existed therein 
during the * War of Independence/” “All investigations 
have failed,” it says, “ to show the precise manner in which 
the outbreak occurred ; but it appears that the disease came 
from the circle of Schrimm, in the district of Posen. The 
means of its extension from the circle of Schrimm are the 
more obscure, because those persons who might have been 
the cause of the conveyance of the infection are interested in 
not giving correct information. A knowledge of the exist- 
ence of the pest only reached the authorities at Breslau after 
three different circles were more or less affected, which cir- 
cumstance arose from the want of experience of the district 
veterinary surgeons, none having had an opportunity of pre- 
viously seeing the disease. Subsequently, also, about a month 
elapsed before correct reports were obtained from the com- 
missioners who were specially appointed for the investigation, 
arising from the great distances they had to travel, and the 
difficulties which were in the way of their making post-mortem 
examinations.” 
“The disease lasted for seven months; and its continuance 
so long depended in part on the footing it obtained while the 
investigations were going on, as during this time many 
animals were inadvertently exposed to the infection ; and 
consequently they had the malady incubated in their systems 
when the preventive measures were enforced. Another cause 
of this long duration of the malady is to be found in the 
difficulties which were experienced in the adoption of the 
sanitary laws, and the want of zeal on the part of the public 
in giving effect to them.” 
In October, the disease declined in the different circles, 
and was nearly extirpated; but, about the middle of Novem- 
ber, it reappeared in the villages of Braunau and Seitsch, 
which doubtless depended on a second communication being 
established between them and some of the still infected farms. 
The following table shows the number of the places affected, 
together with the quantity of cattle kept, and the result of 
the outbreak : 
