738 
CATTLE PLAGUE. 
and it is known that in such lots, animals affected with the 
cattle plague were detected. 
Fifty-eight of these oxen were shipped at Cronstadt for 
Hull in the early part of July ; and among them there were 
three diseased animals. Two of the number died on board 
on the second and fourth day of the voyage, and were 
thrown overboard. 
When the animals arrived at Hull in the third week of 
July, cattle plague was detected among them, and when a 
careful inspection of each beast was made twenty were 
found to be suffering from cattle plague in various stages. 
The ship with the diseased cattle on board was lying for 
several days in the Humber dock, close to the “ Form,” and 
not five hundred yards from the cattle market, and in spite 
of all that could be done, there was open communication 
between the vessel and the shore. 
For nearly a fortnight, cattle affected with the plague had 
stood on the ship’s deck, and it is surely no exaggeration to 
say that the amount of contagium in the excretions which had 
accumulated was sufficient to infect every head of cattle in 
the kingdom. Is it necessary, then, to question the proba¬ 
bility of some of the virus being carried into the Hull market 
only the day after the carcases of the Russian oxen were sent 
out to sea? The precise manner of the conveyance of the 
poison has not been, and certainly will not be ascertained. 
No one, in short, saw one of the men who had been en¬ 
gaged about the diseased cattle rub his hand or coat against 
an animal in the market or on its way thereto. But when 
a centre of infection has been established, it is not usual 
to cavil much about the possible means of communica¬ 
tion between that centre and a place a few hundred yards 
distant. 
The next link in the chain of facts is the purchase of two 
animals, a heifer and a steer, at the auction sale in Hull 
market on July £9th, by a butcher of Patrington. These 
came from farms in the neighbourhood of Hull, where no 
disease has existed. They were taken by railway, on the 
day of purchase to Patrington, and placed in a field adjoining 
one belonging to Mr. Sanderson, a miller, whose stock—two 
cows and two calves—were grazing in his meadow. 
Twelve days after reaching the field at Patrington, the 
heifer in the butcher’s field was found to be ill, and was 
slaughtered on August l&th. A difficulty occurs here, which 
we hasten to meet; twelve days is a long period for the in¬ 
cubation of cattle plague; but we have to observe, for the 
information of our non-professional readers, that the date 
