619 
CATTLE PLAGUE. 
Our last reports from St. Petersburg represent the 
cattle plague to be exceedingly virulent in the Baltic pro¬ 
vinces of Russia, and to have reached to within twenty miles 
of the capital. 
From Hamburg we also learn that the disease has re¬ 
appeared in a field about a mile from the place in which the 
previous cases occurred. An ox and two cows having died 
suddenly, a post-mortem examination was made, which fully 
confirmed the existence of cattle plague. The remaining 
cattle, consisting of eleven cows and two goats, some of 
which had begun to show symptoms of the disease, were 
consequently killed by the instruction of the authorities as 
quickly as possible. The carcases were disposed of in the 
manner employed in France, viz. they were put into a large 
pit, which was then filled with tar and set on fire. 
It is thus evident that the cattle plague has now existed in 
the neighbourhood of Hamburg for upwards of a month, 
notwithstanding the energetic measures which have been 
adopted for its extirpation. Imports of “ cattle of all races ” 
from Russia, and also of animal products from that country, 
are strictly forbidden. 
Denmark has also interdicted the importation of Russian 
cattle and all substances which have been in contact with 
them, and even refused to allow any communication between 
the shore and cattle steamers from the Baltic. She has, 
besides, taken steps to guard the Schleswig-Holstein frontier. 
In spite of these precautions, reports of the existence of 
cattle plague among some cattle imported from Denmark have 
been published. The following alarming paragraph from 
the Medical Press and Circular we quote for the purpose of 
remarking that it is happily without any foundation : 
“ The rinderpest has appeared at Edinburgh and Leith. 
The infected cattle came from Denmark and Iceland. Com¬ 
bined with rinderpest is the foot-and-mouth disease, which 
seems to be of a peculiarly virulent character, five of the 
infected animals having died.” 
The supposed rinderpest was nothing more than a 
virulent form of foot-and-mouth disease, a form not un¬ 
common among foreign cattle, in which the lesions of the 
buccal membrane are occasionally not unlike those of cattle 
plague. 
From Pesth advices state that the kingdom of Hungary is 
