19, that they had been placed with, fell ill with the disease, and the whole were forthwith slaughtered.

"2. At Ponischowitz.-Twenty Podolian oxen came here on the same occasion, and they within a few days gave indications of being affected. Like the others, also, they had been put with other cattle, 49 in number. On the occurrence of the outbreak the whole were killed, so that not a single head of cattle was left on the estate. The place was likewise surrounded by a military cordon; but while the disease was going on, a carpenter's apprentice, employed on the estate, escaped the vigilance of the guards, and went to his father's bouse, which was distant about two thousand paces. While there he repaired a manger in his father's cow-shed, and also changed the clothes he had worn at Ponischowitz. The rinderpest in consequence of this broke out among his father's cattle. The whole were thereupon killed, and a military cordon drawn around the premises. It is now ten days since the animals were slaughtered.

"3. At Slupsho, four of the Podolian oxen sent here were attacked. They were likewise slaughtered, and the further progress of the disease arrested. The cordon has been raised here four weeks; the place baving been previously disinfected.

"4. At Zawaiz, in the circle of Beuthen, at a totally isolated farm, a case of sudden death occurred to an ox, which the surgeon reported as happening from rinderpest; but there is considerable doubt as to this opinion being correct.

"5. At Wohlau, in the circle of Pless, close to the frontier of Galicia, and into which no cattle had been imported, three cases of the disease occurred, and all at peasants'. These animals had come in contact with nine others, and all were consequently killed and a military cordon established. In this particular instance it was impossible to trace the cause of the introduction of the disease.

"These are all the cases of rinderpest which have recently occurred in the provinces of Silesia, and at the present time not a single suspicious case exists, owing to the means which the Government has adopted to arrest its course. No fear need be entertained that the disease will extend from Prussia to the neighbouring countries.

"

"(Signed) BARON SCHLEINITZ.

'Privy Councillor to his Majesty the King of Prussia, and Upper President of the province of Silesia. "Breslau, April 27th, 1857."

It will not be necessary to comment on this Report in this place, and more particularly as we shall have hereafter to adduce some remarkable proofs of the contagious nature of the rinderpest. It is right, however, as several parts of Prussia have experienced during the last two years different outbreaks of the malady, and as its extension in this kingdom especially is an object of much practical importance, as thereby a greater risk is incurred of its reaching those countries which are in direct communication with our ports, that as complete a history of these recent visitations should be here given as we have been able to collect.

THE RECENT OUTBREAK OF THE RINDERPEST IN EASTERN EUROPE.

Throughout the late war, the movements of the Russian troops necessarily called for the transit of large numbers of cattle to those places which the army successively occupied; and it appears more than probable that the wide diffusion of the "steppe murrain" which has occurred within the last three years has depended entirely upon this cause.

The ordinary traffic in cattle leads, it is true, to the annual removal of large herds from the steppes; and hence the outbreaks of the rinderpest in those countries which are otherwise free from it can often be traced to the animals which find their way from the various fairs and markets. No cause, however, is so potent in the spread of the disease as the outbreak of a Russian war ; and consequently, whenever circumstances have required the passage of her troops over the frontier, the pest has manifested itself in a far more extensive form.

Thus it is recorded that, "during the Russo-Turkish war in 1827 and 1828, the Russian cattle which were sent for the supply of the army carried the murrain with them, and that it destroyed no less than 30,000 head of cattle in Hungary, 12,000 in Galicia, and 9,000 in Moravia."

Again in 1831, 1832, and 1833, in consequence of the Polish insurrection, the disease committed great ravages in that country, causing considerable distress. At this period it also crossed the Prussian frontier, in the department of Bromberg, and, although quickly exterminated, swept away nearly 1,000 head of cattle.

In 1849-50 the malady again prevailed to a very great extent in Hungary, its introduction being due, according to the official report of M.M. Renault and Imlin, commissioners appointed by the French Government to inquire into the subject, to the passage of the Russian troops from Wallachia by way of Transylvania.

Very shortly also after the army of Russia was sent to occupy the Principalities, rumours of the cattle plague became current; and we find that as early as 1854 the disease had made considerable progress both in Volhynia and Podolia. From that period nearly down to the present the malady gradually extended itself, until it reached most of the countries in Eastern Europe, and some parts even of Asia Minor. From the Principalities it can be traced in a northerly and westerly direction into Moravia, Galicia, Poland, Prussia, Lithuania, &c.; easterly into Bessarabia, Southern Russia, and the Crimea; as also into Turkey, and to the southern shore of the Black Sea.

We have not been able to arrive at any correct estimate of the immense losses these several countries sustained in consequence of this visitation; but it has been officialy reported that no less than 26,442 head of cattle were destroyed in the Austrian dominions in the year 1856. And Consul-General Mansfield, in a despatch from Warsaw, states that from May 9th, 1856, to the date of his report, March 29th, 1857, twenty thousand beasts had been sacrificed in Poland alone. It has likewise been said that the French army lost in Samsoun 8,000 beasts out of 17,500 in the space of nine months, and that we lost during the same time 4,000 out of 10,000 from the pest-facts which may help to convey an idea of the hundreds of thousands which were swept away.

Mr. Radcliffe, M. R.C.S., who lately held a commission in the Ottoman army, reports that, while he was stationed at Sinope, the murrain was developed towards the termination of the spring or early part of the summer of 1855, and that in the month of June it reached its acme. "Scattered cases," he adds, " occurred, however, from time to time until November, when, about the second or third week of the month, the disease broke out again with great fierceness, spread rapidly among the cattle in the depôt and in the town, reached a second acme about the termination of the month, declined during December, and ceased altogether in January, 1856."

Among many others also, Mr. Walton Mayer, V.S. to the "Royal Engineer Field Equipment," who was, during the war, attached to the Land Transport Corps, speaks of the existence of the disease in several parts of Turkey, and in the immediate neighbourhood of Constantinople, in the summer of 1855. Early in the same year, in consequence of a considerable part of both Austrian and Russian Poland having become the seat of the disease, much apprehension was shown lest it should cross the Prussian frontier. To prevent this the Prussian Government took the precaution of sending detachments of troops to all the points of egress below Thorn, with a view of cutting off the communication with the infected localities.

M. V. Schleinitz, President of the department of Bromberg, in the province of Posen, in his official report, says, that "it was in the month of March, 1855, that we were obliged to order the frontier to be closed, which was first effected in pursuance of the directions in section 2 of the law of 1836. In October of the same year we were under the necessity, in consequence of the threatening approach of danger, of putting into force the severer directions of section 3 respecting the closing of the frontier; and when, at the end of that month, intelligence, though not officially confirmed, arrived here regarding the progress of the murrain, we caused the Polish district bordering upon our department to be thoroughly investigated by the veterinary surgeon of our department within a distance of three miles from the boundary of our territory."

"It being then ascertained that the disease was only 2 miles from our frontier, we determined, at the beginning of November, to close the same still more strictly, according to section 4 of the said law. At the same time we ordered the district commissaries of police to inform the mayors of the different places of the impending calamity, who were not only instructed to exhort the inhabitants of their districts to use the greatest precaution, but also to give immediate notice, per express, to the Councillor of administration of the district of every suspicious case of disease breaking out among the cattle."

"As a further warning and instruction to the public, we caused copies of the circular which was issued by the chief magistrate of our province, under the date of 28th January, 1845, to be printed and distributed, to which we annexed a description of the symptoms of the disease, and caused the same to be distributed as a supplement to our official paper (Gazette). Besides this we prohibited the attendance of persons at the weekly markets of the towns lying nearest to the threatened boundary with those species of cattle, as well as with other things likely to convey infection, and which the law of 1833 specially enumerates; we likewise ordered establishments to be erected for personal purification in the villages wherein the frontier custom-office is established; stationed gendarmes in the villages on our side of the boundary situated nearest the infected Polish districts, and charged the district commissaries in the immediate neighbourhood, under pain of dismissal from office, with the execution of the preventive measures in case the contagion should break out in our territory. We further empowered the Councillors of the Administration of the district to order the district veterinary surgeons to inspect the villages and places on the boundary as often as necessity requ.red, and to watch over the state of the health of the cattle there."

Notwithstanding these precautions were rigorously adopted, the disease crossed the Prussian frontier; and in the latter part of November, 1855, it manifested itself in the circle of Inowraclaw, and shortly afterwards in the circle of Gnesen, near the town of Posen. The official report states, that on this occurrence "general measures were taken for closing the boundaries of the places infected, and special ones for the infected farmyards, by means of sentries posted under the superintendence of gendarmes; quarantine stables were established, superintendents and cattle inspectors appointed, and these persons provided with written instructions and bound by oath to their observance; all trade in cattle was forbidden within a circuit of three miles, all dogs chained up, and every proprietor of cattle within a circuit of two miles from the infected place was bound upon pain of incurring the penalty of sec. 309 of the Criminal Law, to give immediate notice even of the least symptom of disease among his cattle, to the mayor of the place, who had forthwith to inform the Councillor

of the Administration of the district by an express messenger, of such cases of disease, provided they did not proceed from exterior injuries."

"These measures for prevention and cutting off intercourse were in no instance abandoned before the expiration of the fourth week; and the carcases of the cattle that had died of the pest, or had been killed in consequence of its appearance in infected districts, no matter whether diseased or healthy, were always, after their skins had been cut into pieces on all parts of the body, buried in pits from six to eight feet deep, each carcase being previously covered with unslackened lime." At the first the chief execution of these preventive means on the several farms was intrusted to civilians, but very early in the progress of the malady the military was employed. The disease presently began to subside, but despite every precaution occasional cases occurred, 80 that the department of Bromberg was not entirely freed from it until the beginning of 1856.

The cordon, however, on the frontier of Poland was not raised; but on a decline of the disease in that country a removal of the impediments which had been placed in the way of trade was gladly permitted. Individuals who could satisfy the officers of the urgency of their business-which, however, must not be in connection with cattle or cattle offal-were, by reason of a certificate from the Councillor of Administration of the district, allowed to cross the frontier, through the custom offices, into Poland. Upon similar conditions foot passengers, who must, however, be furnished with only the most necessary requirements, were likewise permitted to pass into the department of Bromberg from Poland. Nevertheless all individuals crossing the frontier, together establishments erected for that purpose at the boundary with their effects, were required to be disinfected in the custom place, under the superintendence of a gendarme.

Persons travelling post were likewise subject to the same regulations, and spun goods were not allowed to

enter.

Early in 1856-namely, in the month of April-the disease also broke out in the department of Breslau, in the province of Silesia. For the particulars of this occurrence we are indebted to Lord Loftus, to whom they were officially communicated by the Prussian Government. The report states that "for forty years the department had been entirely free from the rinderpest, but that the disease had existed therein during the War of Independence."" "All investigations have failed," it says, "to show the precise manner in which the outbreak occurred; but it appears that the disease came from the circle of Schrimm, in the district of Posen. The means of its extension from the circle of Schrimm are the more obscure, because those persons who might have been the cause of the conveyance of the infection are interested in not giving correct information. A knowledge of the existence of the pest only reached the authorities at Breslau after three different circles were more or less affected, which circumstance arose from the want of experience of the district veterinary surgeons, none having had an opportunity of previously seeing the disease. Subsequently, also, about a month elapsed before correct reports were obtained from the commissioners who were specially appointed for the investigation, arising from the great distances they had to travel, and the difficulties which were in the way of their making post-mortem examinations."

"The disease lasted for seven months; and its continuance so long depended in part on the footing it obtained while the investigations were going on, as during this time many animals were inadvertently exposed to the infection; and consequently they had the malady incubated in their systems when the preventive

(Enclosure No. 2.) "Circular Notice of the Imperial Royal Government of Galicia respecting the Slaughtering of Cattle to prevent the spreading of the Rinderpest.

"To prevent the spreading of this disease by the means which are at the command of the Minister of the Interior, it has been deemed expedient to issue the following orders :"1st. That whenever there are reasons to suspect the existence of the pest, all diseases occurring among cattle shall be carefully watched; and when the least doubt exists as to the

"(a) At its outbreak in places which have hitherto been free from it.

"(b) When the disease is well marked in its characters, symptoms, and duration, or by its violence and destructiveness, and when also the police measures which have been already taken have been without effect in checking its progress, so that there is a probability that either the malady by the slaughtering may be suddenly brought to an end, or that its further spreading may be entirely or partly prevented, to enable the communication between healthy and diseased districts to be speedily re-established.

(c) The ultimate decision as to whether the slaughtering shall be enforced when the certainty of the presence of the rinderpest has been decided on, and to what extent it shall be carried, is to depend on the commissioners who are appointed for that purpose, who, after having been duly informed of the outbreak of the rinderpest or other disease of a suspicious nature, or the spreading of the same in the infected communes, shall, conjointly with those who are charged with the carrying out of the veterinary police regulations, and also, if possible, with a medical officer acquainted with the disease, and two sworn valuers, taken from the commune, who are well acquainted with the price of farm stock, first value the cattle which it has been decided to slaughter. A special report is to be made of the proceedings to the competent authorities.

"3rd. With reference to the question by whom and in what manner the estimated value is to be paid to the owner of the condemned cattle, and whether it is ultimately to be paid by an order on the Treasury from the police authority of the district

"(a) The owner will receive the full value ordered by the authorities, after deduction has been made for the parts that may be used, as determined by competent authorities, for the cattle which have been killed on suspicion under rule 1, with a view to ascertain if the disease was the rinderpest or not.

"(b) For those cattle where no doubt exists as to the nature of the disease being the rinderpest, and in those districts in the Austrian dominions which are known to be infected. And when the slaughtering shall have been ordered by the authorities, the owner shall only be entitled to receive the amount of their value on condition that he has not neglected any of the precautions which are prescribed by the veterinary police, and thereby contributed to the spread of the infection among his stock, or has in no way concealed the disease after the outbreak on his premises.

"(c) Under the same circumstances of the existence of the disease, the sum named by the valuers, after deducting the worth of the parts allowed to be used, such as the skin and horns, when properly disinfected, will be paid for every head of cattle killed by order of the commissioners.

"(d) With a view to facilitate those proprietors whose cattle have been slaughtered by the commission for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of the disease, and when it has been proved not to be the rinderpest, in replacing their cattle speedily, the district authorities are empowered to order the payment to be made out of the district funds, and to duly inform the superior authorities of the same.

"4th. To estimate the true value of the cattle ordered to be slaughtered by the commission, the local authorities as well as the sworn valuers will have to take into consideration the market value, age, and breed of every animal submitted to them.

"5th. With regard to the cattle which have been killed as suspected, but which are found on a sectio cadaveris to be perfectly free from the disease, the flesh of the same may be used for food, and the hide, horns, and tallow as articles of commerce. Of those, also, which were known to be affected by the pest, or were discovered to be diseased on the making of the post mortem examination, the horns, fat, and hides may be used for commercial purposes, but only on the regulations framed for that end being strictly complied with; and it is ordained that in these instances the parts shall be valued, and deduction made from the amount to be paid to the proprietors. "The attention of the local authorities and veterinary police is specially directed to this point.

"Lastly. It is ordered that these fresh directions of the district government upon the necessity of the slaughtering of cattle to prevent the spreading of the rinderpest be in force from the present time.

"Lemberg, 17th September, 1850."

Immediately on the receipt of these official documents and our letters of introduction from Count Clam Martinitz, we set forward on our journey to Neu Sandec via Bochnia, passing over the great rock-salt formation of Austro-Poland in company with Professor Nicklas, of the Veterinary School at Munich, whom we had previously met at Berlin, and who had been sent by the

authorities of Bavaria on a similar mission to ourselves.

Arriving at Neu Sandec, our first business was to wait upon the President of the department, who referred us to the district physician for the latest particulars as to the precise location of the disease, as the week's report had not yet reached his office.

It may be aswell here to observe that in this part of the Austrian dominions there are no scientifically educated veterinary surgeons; and that from the frequent occurrence of epizootic diseases, both physicians and surgeons are appointed by the Government as inspectors of the health of cattle, and to act also as commissioners of veterinary sanitary police during the prevalence of these affections. To fit them for this purpose, they have to make this class of maladies their special study, and subsequently to undergo an examination as a test of their competency.

By the district physician we were placed in communication with M. Carl Zankel, surgeon and commissioner of Alt Sandec, who received instructions to accompany us forthwith to the different places where the disease existed; and to proceed, in the first instance, to a village called Ludowica, lying at the foot of the high range of the Carpathian mountains, where a case had just occurred, and which it was hoped that we might succeed in seeing before the animal was destroyed.

On reaching Ludowica we were at once admitted within the cordon, when we found that this animal, together with nine others which had been exposed to the infection with him, had already been slaughtered and buried. An application was made to have the bodies disinterred, but which for want of due formality was not complied with-Ludowica, in fact, being outside the circle of Alt Sandec, to which M. Zankel was attached, and we not having with us a special order from the President to the authorities of the circle we were now in for the disinterment.

The slaughtering had swept away all the animals in the village which were known to have been exposed to the infectious influence of the disease, and consequently we pressed forward through the mountain passes, which here chiefly consisted of the partially-dried beds of rivers and streams, to another village called Zabrzez. It was somewhat singular that at Zabrzez we came upon the identical farm where the malady had first showed itself in this locality, and saw on the premises four of the original Steppe oxen by which it had been brought. Three of these had been the subjects of the disease, but had recovered, and the fourth had resisted the contagion throughout, as was believed, because he had before been affected. They were tied up to fatten, and had every appearance of perfect health, having no trace of disease of any kird about them.

Besides these, there were nine other animals on the bull, and five cows. They also were feeding, and lookfarm in quarantine, consisting of three oxen, a young ing well. Twelve days had elapsed since the occurrence of the last death; and we learned that should no other case happen, the animals would not be liberated till the completion of the twenty-first day from the time of the last death.

Leaving Zabrzez, we went on to Kamienica, five miles distant, and the head-quarters of the Austrian commission, which had been specially sent to administer the sanitary laws applicable to the rinderpest. The