REPORT ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 
651 
In Kamienica the malady chiefly prevailed among the 
cattle of the small proprietors and peasants ; and the daily 
lamentations of the poor women, to whom was confided the 
principal care, or rather, on whom was forced the labour of 
nursing and feeding the animals, at the losses they were 
sustaining, were most distressing to witness. Nearly the 
entire means of living of these small farmers depend on the 
well-being of their cattle ; and to see them swept away by 
such a fatal scourge, could not fail to excite our deepest 
sympathy. A gloom was cast over the whole village; and 
fear seemed to be depicted on every countenance, lest the 
disease should still further extend itself. 
As a warning to surrounding places, notice-boards were 
erected at the different entrances into the village, setting 
forth, by their Polish and German inscriptions of “Zaraza 
na bydlo rogate,” and “Horn-vieh Seuche,” that 
the pest was there, while each fresh place of outbreak 
was instantly surrounded by the military cordon , and all 
communication effectually cut off. 
Besides Zabrzez and Kamienica, two other villages 
in the district of Kroscienko were the seat of the pest — 
namely, Tylka and Szczawnica. The total number of cattle 
kept in the former was seventy-eight, out of which eleven were 
attacked; and of these ten died, and one was slaughtered. 
In the latter place, 490 were kept, and thirty-four became the 
subjects of the malady ; and of these twenty-five died, four 
were slaughtered, and five recovered. It has been ascertained 
that the outbreak also in these instances depended upon the 
introduction of six steppe oxen, bought at the same fair. 
Characters of the Disease. 
Infection . — Rinderpest properly belongs to that class of 
diseases which is denominated special or specific, by which 
we understand that there is either some certain and par- 
ticular cause which gives origin to them, or that a marked 
peculiarity attends their progress and results. Affections of 
this kind most frequently possess the power of extension, by 
an inherent property of disseminating the materies morbi upon 
which they themselves depend, and which we recognise by 
the terms infection and contagion. Thus each victim may 
be viewed as adding new seeds to the malady, by the exha- 
lations arising from its own body; it being a remarkable 
circumstance that, when the morbific matter has entered the 
system, it multiplies to an inconceivable extent before it is 
cast out by the organic functions. The circumstance of 
