RINDERPEST. 
239 
cally, wool is a suitable medium for the importation of rinderpest, sheep 
as well as cattle being subject to the disease. Yet a careful study of the 
history of the malady fails to furnish illustrative instances of infection 
by this channel. There can be no doubt that the virus may be impris¬ 
oned in the meshes of the firmly-rolled fleece, and conveyed to a cer¬ 
tain distance unchanged, precisely as it has often been in the clothes of 
human beings. But as the virus impregnating the clothes is destroyed 
by a few hours’ exposure, (see in No. 1, case of attendant on sick and 
healthy animals at the Albert Veterinary College), so it probably is in 
the loose texture of the fleece. Yet if wool be .packed at once after 
having been shorn, there can be no doubt that the virus might be 
excluded from the air as completely as in fodder, and thus be conveyed 
to any distance. It is,therefore, a wise provision of most of the Euro¬ 
pean veterinary sanitary codes that forbids the importation of unwashed 
wool from infected countries, and a similar enactment would be equally 
appropriate for us. Washed wool has undergone such a process of 
purification and airing that it may be held clear of suspicion, and 
admitted without any restriction. On this point, again, our Treasury 
order illustrates the absurdity of our system, as not a word is said about 
wool in any shape. Hair and bristles are to be treated exactly like 
wool ; when quite new they may be virulent, but when quite dry they 
have always proved harmless. 
EXCREMENT. 
All who have investigated the subject of rinderpest have been struck 
with the important place held by excrement in its propagation. As the 
disease concentrates its morbid action on the stomach and bowels, their 
products are especially charged with the poison ; and if brought in con¬ 
tact with other animals in their fresh condition, or after having been 
closely packed in a mass, they will communicate the disease with the 
greatest certainty. Hence the history of the malady is full of instances 
of infection from recently manured fields, from those on which the man¬ 
ure has been spread but frozen for weeks and months, from grazing on 
fields formerly occupied by diseased animals, and from occupying build¬ 
ings, yards, loading banks, wagons, cars, ships and boats in which the 
sick have been. The manure is usually deposited in masses, thick 
enough to prevent the ready destruction of the virus by the action of 
the air, and hence its virulence is only extinguished by the slow process 
of putrefaction. Whatever, therefore, retards this process, will prolong 
this danger; and thus the frosts of winter, and the firm packing of the 
