910 SANITARY POLICE AND THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 
naturally exempt from the cattle plague, and which suffer 
from it only by accident. 
But if it is certain that this disease never develops itself 
spontaneously beyond the frontiers of the Russian empire, 
ought all the provinces of that empire be equally suspected, 
and subject to the same interdiction ? This is a question 
which it would have been very important to solve in the 
interests of commerce, but the elements necessary to the 
solution of it were not in the possession of the Conference. 
It is presumable, from the facts that the representatives of 
Russia made known, that in the western provinces of the 
empire the cattle plague is produced only by contagion, as 
in other parts of Europe; and that it is in the Asiatic ter¬ 
ritories that the conditions for its spontaneous development 
are found; but this is merely a presumption. It is, more¬ 
over, certain that the movement of beasts from the Ural 
Mountains towards the western frontiers of the empire too 
commonly disseminate the germs of the contagion in the 
country that they traverse. Russia has, therefore, been, 
until the establishment of new laws, necessarily left out of 
the Sanitarv Convention which it was desired to establish: 
and that country should not be allowed to export its cattle 
except under certain more or less efficacious guarantees, of 
which I shall speak presently. 
The danger of the cattle plague is an incessant menace to 
Europe, as Russia has not yet attempted to defend its western 
provinces from its ravages. Could it not be neutralised by a 
general inoculation, rendered compulsory through the whole 
region of the Steppes ? But the Steppes are of immense 
extent, and they are stocked with herds that may well be 
termed innumerable. Under such conditions is inoculation 
really practicable ? At first sight it would appear that this 
question can be answered only in the negative. However, 
the objection as to its impossibility falls to the ground in face 
of the fact that the majority of the male beasts of the Steppes 
are oxen, and that, consequently, each of them has indivi¬ 
dually passed through the hands of the castrator. If castra¬ 
tion is possible, then inoculation is equally so. But does its 
practice yield results of real economical advantage? On this 
point the opinions of the members of the veterinary profes¬ 
sion in Russia continue to be divided, for while some still 
advocate it others strongly disapprove of it; and after long 
and costly experiments the Russian Government has re¬ 
nounced it. The results of these experiments give a mean 
mortality of 13 per cent., even amongst the herds of the 
Steppes, and this mortality is sometimes increased to 30 per 
