48 
CATTLE DISEASE IN CHINA. 
the disease must seriously affect the quality of beef sold by 
native butchers: 
“ Memorandum No. 2. 
“ 7 he disease which made its appearance in April last 
among horned cattle in Shanghai has as yet received no 
decided check. It is, at the present date, prevalent in the 
sheds where the animals intended for the Shanghai foreign 
market are stalled. During the past two months I have had 
ample opportunities of verifying and extending the ob¬ 
servations, as to symptoms and post-mortem appearances, wdiich 
I recorded briefly in my first memorandum. I am aware 
that a general impression exists that the disease was intro¬ 
duced from abroad, and probably through cattle imported 
from France. In this I do not concur, believing that furthei 
research wdll demonstrate the important fact that rinderpest 
has been for many years past as truly endemic in the Great 
Plain of China as in the Steppes of Russia. Medical testi¬ 
mony varies as to the presence or absence of danger to man, 
arising from the consumption of the flesh of animals slaugh¬ 
tered while suffering from this disease. But it is at least cer¬ 
tain that, while no one would knowingly eat such meat, the 
foreign community generally will require the governing body 
to use all possible diligence to prevent its introduction into 
the public markets. The experience of the past three months 
has convinced me that it is practically impossible to distin¬ 
guish the beef taken from the carcases of diseased animals 
from that furnished by those in perfect health, and this 
appears to be true even in the case of cattle slaughtered in an 
advanced stage of this particular form of murrain. It is, 
therefore, my duty to recommend that, in future, all cattle 
the flesh of which is intended for the use of foreigners, should 
be carefully inspected and pronounced free from disease before 
being slaughtered. 
As adding to or modifying the statements made in my first 
memorandum, I am anxious to place the following facts on 
record : 
“The period of incubation of the poison is probably under 
ten days. The average duration of the disease, from the date 
of manifest infection to the time of death, is probably not more 
than four days. Running at the eyes and nose, so generally 
observed in the epidemic wrhich visited England in 1865, has 
not been a specially prominent symptom among the cattle 
dying in Shanghai. Many animals have exhibited this dis¬ 
charge in a marked degree, but in others it has been entirely 
