no impossible contingency-cease one day to fascinate the busy world. Way, will the genuine faculty of humour itself find the leisure which seems indispensable to its subsistence, when the culminating point shall have been reached of that material civilisation which, though now it aids and impels discovery of earth's buried secrets, threatens in its own imperious demands to absorb more and more man's small span of life and force of brain in the schemes and competitions of the moment? ART. VII.-THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 1. First Report of the Commissioners ap- that we find incidental notices of some of them even in this country. The fourteenth century was particularly remarkable in England for the frequent occurrence of human plagues. Fifteen times at least, during that century, did black death and its kindred plagues ravage Europe, sometimes preceded, sometimes followed, by grievous murrains among cattle. In the two years 1348-1349 a plague of great intensity attacked the horned cattle in England. They died by thousands, and the herdsmen, panicstricken, fled from their herds, which roamed wildly about the country, carrying the plague into every district. Many attempts were made to confine the diseased cattle, but with little effect, owing to the belief that they could communicate the plague to man. The harvest withstanding the abundance of grain, the in these years was luckily plentiful, but, notdearth of cattle was severely felt, and the hor rors of famine were added to those of the plagues among men and beasts. About a century later the múrrain among cattle was prevalent throughout Europe, and once more fell upon this country. It was again accomBut on this panied by a plague among men. Peste Bovine, effectuée en Russie depuis occasion the human plague, or "sweating sickT'année 1853. Paris, 1863. October 1865. 3. Sur les Résultats de l'Inoculation de la ness," chiefly fell upon the middle and upper classes of society, who were thus punished for their gluttony and riotous living; and its accompanying murrain among cattle does not appear to have caused such panic in the poorer classes as on the occasion of its previous visit, when their spirits were weighed down by repeated assaults of black death, The years 1348 and 1480 produced no chroniclers of these murrains, so that we are unable either to identify or to differentiate between them and the cattle plague of our own time. PLAGUES among cattle, like plagues among men, have in all ages excited marked attention in the countries which they have attacked. "A grievous murrain" which smote the cattle of Egypt was one of the means employed to soften the heart of the obdurate Pharaoh. Classical authors frequently allude to pests among oxen, as every one who has read Homer, Plutarch, Livy, and Virgil will well remember. Even the contagious character of these plagues is described by Columella, in his De Re Rustica, at the beginning of the by the Governments of both periods are howThe preventive measures used Christian era; while Vegetius, three centuries ever identical. The separation of diseased later, enlarges upon this theme, and prescribes from sound stock, so long since recommended the course adopted by our rulers in the nine- by Vegetius, was then adopted as now; and teenth century, that plague-stricken beasts the free use of the pole-axe to slaughter susshould "with all diligence and care be sepa-pected animals was encouraged then, as it has rated from the herd, and be put apart by been in the Order of Council during the themselves, and that their carcasses be bupresent year. ried." It is not, however, our purpose to describe the frequent plagues which have devastated Europe in the middle ages. The ninth century was particularly afflicted with them, Charlemagne having sown their seeds broadcast during the movements of his army, as Fracastorius and Weierus have fully recorded. We would leap over the history of these ancient plagues altogether, were it not * In the year 376 the cattle plague was all over Europe, and Cardinal Baronius assures us that no cattle escaped, except such as were marked on the forehead with the sign of the Cross. Till the last year of the reign of Queen Anne, our country was not again visited by any extensive murrain among cattle. This plague, like its successors in 1745, 1768, and 1865, first appeared in the neighbourhood of London, and swept off many cattle. But the pole-axe was used unsparingly; the slaugh tered cattle were buried deep under the earth; and the plague was soon stainped out, without extending its ravages much beyond the home counties. Thirty years later the plague once more invaded the country and held it with a firm grip for twelve years; but before re counting the evil that it did then, and the experience which it has left for our guidance now, it is necessary to become acquainted with its general prevalence in Europe during the eighteenth century, for it is from this period that our scientific knowledge of the murrain begins to be developed. The wars which prevailed during the eighteenth century diffused the plague all through Europe, as a natural consequence of the parks of cattle which were forined in the rear of the armies. The years 1711 to 1714 were especially remarkable for the mortality caused by the plague in Western Europe, no less than one million five hundred thousand cattle having perished by the murrain during these years. On the 17th August 1711, Count Trajan Borromeo, a canon of Padua, saw a stray and way-worn ox upon his estate, and, instigated by humane motives, gave it shelter in a cowshed. This ox was soon reclaimed by its owner, who stated that it had strayed from an Hungarian herd belonging to the commissariat of the Austrian army. About a week after this unlucky visit, the cattle in the shed which had sheltered the Hungarian beast began to sicken, and shortly afterwards died of a malignant pest. The season was fine, and unusually dry; but the pest spread rapidly through the Count's herds, and from them extended widely, passing on to Milan, Ferrara, the Campagna of Rome and Naples, travelled through Sardinia and Piedmont, then through Dauphiny into France, traversed Switzerland, scaled the Mountains of the Tyrol, spread over Germany, and penetrated into Holland, from whence it is supposed to have been imported into England. Italy did not get rid of it for seven years. Pope Clement XI. lost 30,000 cattle in his States during this period, and was so affected by the losses, that he published regulations for the suppression of the plague, on which our own Privy Council, during the existing attack, have made little improvement. The Pope ordered diseased cattle to be slaughtered, their hides to be slashed, so that they might not be used for making leather, and their carcasses to be buried along with quicklime. But, instead of the £20 penalty which our Privy Council exact for an infringement of the order, the Pope ordained that every man infringing these rules should be sent to the gallows if he were a laic, and to the galleys if he were an ecclesiastic. And yet, with these Draconic laws, it took the Pope seven years to expel the plague from his States. During this period, Piedmont lost 80,000 oxen, and the neighbouring countries in a like proportion. The wars of Louis XIV., until his death in 1715, aided much in the propagation of the murrain. The armies of the Allies, under Marlborough and Prince Eugene, frequently carried it in their train, or received it in the capture of commissariat cattle from the French. Holland, from 1713 to 1723, lost more than 200,000 cattle, and then had a period of repose from its ravages. In almost every instance during this century, we find the plague spreading with violence whenever Russian and Austrian troops penetrated westward, or when the troops of other countries commingled with the former, either in war or peace. This was specially observed in the War of Succession, on the death of Charles vi. in 1740. It is familiar to every reader of history, that the Hungarians warmly espoused the cause of Maria Theresa, and as the tide of war surged backwards and forwards, the Hungarian cattle used to feed the Austrian armies, carried with them the seeds of the plague, and again spread them broadcast over Europe. Frederick the Great, in his frequent encounters with the Austrians and Russians, took back this cattle plague, as his Nemesis, to Prussia. In eight years after the death of the Emperor Charles vi., the west and centre of Europe alone lost three millions of horned beasts. This was a period of interest to England, and demands careful consideration. Late in the year 1744, or more probably early in 1745, a murrain broke out among English cattle. The writers of that period, especially Mortimer, the secretary of the Royal Society, and Layard, the eminent physician, agree in ascribing its importation to two white calves brought over from Holland by a farmer living at Poplar near London. Shortly after the arrival of these calves, some cows on the same farm sickened. The distemper spread among the cattle in the lower part of Essex, and soon reached London, which now, through the metropolitan market, passed it into different parts of the country. Still it did not travel rapidly, for, although the Government issued a Commission in November to prevent its spread, the powers of the Commission extended only to Middlesex. Inspectors, who were butchers and cowkeepers, were appointed to examine cowsheds, in order to separate sick and sound beasts. The former were killed and buried twelve feet under ground, their hides being well slashed, and their carcasses covered with two bushels of quicklime. A compensation by the Government of forty shillings, or about half the average price of cattle at the period, was given for each slaughtered beast. The progress of the distemper was so slow that Government did not treat it as a national evil until one year after its outbreak. In February 1746, an Act This was passed, enabling the King to issue Orders | by oath. No such passes shall be issued in Council for its suppression, and the first unless the distemper has ceased for six weeks Order is dated on the 12th of March in that on the pastures or sheds of the cattle-owner. year. This Order states that his Majesty These measures produced a very partial had consulted the learned men of his domi- effect, so that a new Act was passed in 1747, nion, who agreed that they knew of no cure giving to the King increased powers. for the disease; and it even deprecates the Act was followed by continuing and extendattempts at cure, "for while means are used ing Acts up to 1757. Many other Orders to save the sick, the disease spreads among in Council were issued during this period, the sound, and is increased more and more bewailing local apathy, and urging increased in proportion to the numbers seized with it." exertion. Sometimes all the fairs in the Hence the pole-axe was made the radical country are stopped for two or three months; cure in 1746, as it has been by our present at other times the stoppage is limited to Government one hundred and twenty years country fairs, fat stock being still allowed to afterwards. This first Order in Council then be exposed for immediate slaughter. A few proceeds to give directions, which have ob- counties got rid of the pestilence, but the viously dictated those issued in the present neighbouring counties harboured it, and year, and are little more than a transcript of passed over to the adjacent ones; so now the rules laid down by Pope Clement XI.* arose a war of county against county, the Plague-stricken beasts are to be killed and healthy district proscribing the infected one, buried with lime; the litter infected by them watching its roads and every outlet, so that must be burned, and the sheds in which they no beasts, either sick or sound, should be died are to be cleansed, fumigated with sul- allowed to pass. In the second year of the phur or gunpowder, and washed over with plague, 100,000 head of cattle perished in vinegar and water. Men who tended ailing Lincolnshire; in the third year, Nottinghambeasts are not to go near sound stock till shire lost 40,000, and Cheshire 30,000, while they have changed their clothes and washed many other counties suffered in similar protheir bodies. Convalescent cattle are not to portion. In the face of these heavy losses, be brought in contact with sound stock for a the Government gathered itself up for a desmonth. Travelling cattle are to be stopped perate effort, and at the end of 1749 prohi on the highways for examination, and the bits the movement of all stock, whether fat sick beasts must be slaughtered. The local or lean; permitting slaughter only within authorities, who are intrusted with the exe- two miles of where any beast may be, on cution of this order, may appoint inspectors the 14th January 1750. The object of this to see the rules enforced. Eight months prohibition was to let the disease burn itself passed, but the local authorities failed to out without the possibility of extension. justify the confidence reposed in them. So But London and Westminster made a huge a second Order in Council laments the want clamour, fearing a famine, for roads were of local co-operation, and directs that, after then few and bad, and dead meat could not the 27th December 1746, "No person do reach these cities in good condition. The send or drive any ox, bull, cow, calf, steer, or opposition to the Order became so great that heifer, to any fair, market, or town in Eng- it was revoked before it came into operation. land; or do buy, sell, or expose for sale, any The Privy Council now became faint-hearted, ox, etc., except fat cows and oxen ready for and left the war to counties, only interfering immediate slaughter." The Order further now and then in cases of grave evil-doing. directs that no fatted cattle shall be allowed So the disease wore itself out by pure exto be taken from an infected herd; and to haustion, the animals susceptible to its ininsure this order being obeyed, all cattle fluence having mostly perished, until, in going for slaughter must be provided with February 1759, a general thanksgiving anpasses, or clean bills of health, given by a nounced its cessation, no cases having ocJustice of the Peace, upon information sworn curred in the previous year, and a few only in 1757. *But the Pope stole his ideas from Vegetius, who took them from Virgil, and he from Varro: "At length whole herds to death at once it High in the stalls it piles the loathsome heaps, Could purge the filth, nor steams the savour There is no record of the losses which the country experienced during the twelve years. The system of compensation for slaughtered animals would appear to offer a means of record, but it was soon abandoned, as it led to the most serious frauds. Every animal suffering from disease of any kind was knocked on the head, and classed as a plague-stricken beast, in order to insure Government compensation. A more serious evil still re sulted; for the payment of losses diminished the motive to exertion, on the part of local authorities, for the extirpation of the murrain. The Treasury records, therefore, afford no clue to the number of cattle which succumbed to the plague, but it must have reached to upwards of 500,000. It is curious to read the Gentleman's Magazine from 1745 to 1757, and see how history repeats itself. We find in it apparently the same energetic correspondents who now send their lucubrations to the Times, protesting against the use of the pole-axe, advocating or opposing the system of compensation for slaughtered cattle, framing insurance societies, fighting against ideas of contagion and importation of the disease, and describing all kinds of cure. We have not yet seen one method of cure tried in 1865 which was not tried and found wanting in the plague of 1745. Even Miss Burdett Coutts' liberal treatment of the cows at Holly Lodge, with calomel, yeast, castor-oil, porter, port, brandy, and whisky, is to be found in these old chronicles. Copious bleeding and setons in the neck were, of course, from the habit of the time, much resorted to; two quarts of blood, morning and evening, being not thought too much, till it was observed that bled beasts never recovered. Even Mr. Graham's sweating system was well known, but did not yield favourable results. We do not recollect to have seen any proofs that the disorder made its way over to Ireland during this period, though there are some customs now extant among the Irish peasantry which incline us to believe that they at one time suffered from the murrain. Thus, lighting bonfires on the eve of St John's Day, and pitching into them, probably as a sacrifice, live hedgehogs, those traditional cow-suckers, and chasing cattle with burning wisps of straw, show the old methods of burning a plague out of a country, and getting up perspiration in affected beasts. ended his statistical inquiry, more than two hundred millions of horned cattle were cut off by the disorder in Western Europe. The plague followed, as we have seen, in the wake of Russian and Austrian armies, and was propagated by them to allied or opposing armies. The questions now arise:— Are these plagues the natural consequence of aggregations of cattle following in the rear of armies, under circumstances of over-marching and bad feeding; or have they a common birthplace from which they spread? The first question may safely be answered in the negative, for armies operating at a distance from Russian and Austrian commissariats never experience this form of disease. During the warlike reigns of Louis XIV, and Louis xv., the pest was six times in France, but from 1800 to 1814 it was free from the scourge, although still engaged in active warfare. The distemper was only again introduced when the French armies came into collision with the Austrian and Russian troops; and it left France in 1816, after the withdrawal of the allied forces. During this time Germany was grievously smitten with the plague. A further answer to the question is obtained by the experience of the wars in India, Algiers, and America,* where no cattle plague appears as a consequence of moving armies. But English commissariat cattle were seized with it in the Crimea as soon as we came in contact with Russian troops. We come now to the second question, Has this plague a birthplace? The experience of a century tells us that the steppes of European Russia form either its birthplace or its nursery. The lower third part of the Dnieper, with its numerous affluents, until it empties itself into the Black Sea, is surrounded by Russian provinces, which breed about eight millions of cattle to feed on the luxuriant herbage of the steppes. Among these herds this cattle plague or "Rinderpest " constantly prevails, though by no means so virulently as it does when it penetrates Western Europe. As soon as the good pre-season begins, merchants, who are generally Jews, buy up cattle in the steppes and carry them to fairs, for sale. Some of the most notable of these fairs are held in Beltzy in Bessarabia, Elizabetgrad in Kerson, Balta in Podolia, and Berditchev in Volhynia. Balta has at least 500,000 head of cattle at its fairs in a single season. From these centres of traffic, great herds of cattle are driven to feed the populations of Russia It will be seen that the experience of the plague of 1745 is highly valuable, though most discouraging, both as to the use of ventive and curative measures. It is certain that the distemper then was entirely identical with that prevailing now, for the old descriptions of the symptoms, and of the morbid anatomy, do not leave the least ground for doubt. With this description of the long plague in England, and referring to Dossie's essay of 1771 for an account of the short outbreak in 1768, we must conclude our historical retrospect, and pass to subjects more immediately interesting to us. We may merely mention, as the result of careful inquiries by Dr. Faust, that, from 1711 to 1796, when he * America, indeed, claims credit for having exon reading the description it is clear that this attirpated the plague recently in Massachusetts; but tack was not the rinderpest but pleuro-pneumonia. Proper, Poland, and Hungary with its de- | pendencies. Our interest in the cattle which are distributed through Russia is limited, for, with the exception of the famous Revel cargo, we have no direct dealings in live cattle with that empire, though it may be well to mention that the steppe cattle rarely reach as far as St. Petersburg. But it is otherwise as regards Poland and Hungary, for the former receives infected stock, which may pass the Prussian frontiers, and the latter supplies weekly the metropolitan market with the long-horned breed of oxen. The Russian provinces of Podolia, the Ukraine, and Volhynia, annually supply Poland with about 30,000 head of cattle of the steppe kind; and though Poland fights manfully against the introduction of the pest, it frequently crosses over her borders and commits devastation among the native herds. Cattle for immediate slaughter are admitted into Poland after three days' quarantine, but lean cattle, and those destined for exportation, undergo twenty-one days' detention. Our Consul at Warsaw, writing on 4th April 1857, draws the attention of the Foreign Office to this subject:"I beg very particularly to draw your Lordships' attention to this part of the subject, it being beyond doubt that vast numbers of steppe cattle find their way, in consequence of the railway extension, to all parts of Germany, a few days after the Austrian and Prussian frontier has been passed by them. The trade in live stock is very active, and every new mile of railway tends to produce, on the Continent of Europe, an equalization in the price of cattle, similar to what we have already seen in England on a smaller scale." Luckily for this country, Prussia, when she is at peace, has hitherto been a rampart against the extension of the plague, for the police measures to destroy diseased cattle, and even dogs and birds, which might carry infection over the borders, are prompt and severe. But smuggling still takes place, so that the disease occasionally breaks out in the border villages. Round these military cordons are drawn, and the pest is stamped out with merciless rigour. . Austria has never been so successful in her preventive measures. Nearly a hundred thousand steppe cattle are believed to pass annually into Galicia and Hungary. Every six or seven years the pest appears to ravage the herds of the latter country. In the three years 1849-1851, it attacked 300,000 head of cattle, while in 1863 it was more severe than on any previous occasion, having seized on 14 per cent. of all the cattle in Austria, with the exception of Silesia, Bohemia, Upper Austria, Salzburg and the Tyrol, Kurnthen and Venice. At this moment it is still in Hungary, and has attacked sheep as well as horned beasts. This has been a peculiarity of the recent irruption of the pest, for before 1863 Poland also had never experienced its extension to sheep. We draw attention to these facts, because it must be apparent that the completion of the two great lines of railway which, traversing Southern and Central Germany, connect Rotterdam and Hamburg with Pesth and Lemberg, have opened up to us the supplies of Hungary and Galicia, and have vastly increased the danger of a constant importation of this plague. In fact, through Rotterdam, and under the name of Dutch beasts, we have of late frequently recognised in the metropolitan market the long-horned oxen of Hungary. If we have been rightly informed by an official on the Galician railway, there is scarcely any quarantine for beasts destined for exportation, the old rules being now found inapplicable to the modern demands of speedy transit. It seems to be quite certain that steppe oxen can carry about on their hides the virus of the plague, without themselves being necessarily smitten by it, although, on being overdriven, underfed, or badly watered on their journey, the plague breaks out with virulence. Scientific men have kept this poisonous matter for three, six, and even eleven months without any deterioration of its properties, the proof being that it still possessed the power of communicating the distemper to an ox by inoculation. It is quite possible, therefore, that an animal might carry about the poison in a dry state on its skin, hoofs, or horns, and that the contagium only begins to reproduce itself under favourable conditions for its growth. It is There are not a few people in this country, who, in spite of the evidence of men of science, persist in believing that the murrain which now prevails is a disease of spontaneous origin, or of home growth, quite different from the plague of 1745, and not identical with the cattle distemper of Germany called Rinderpest, or, as it is known in France, the typhus contagieux des bêtes à cornes. necessary to convince such people of the absolute identity of these murrains, otherwise all the experience so dearly won by England in the last century will be lost to them, and that acquired by foreign States, who, unhappily for them, are more familiar with the disease than this country, cannot be brought to bear for the common advantage of the public. To remove such doubts, we insert descriptions of the symptoms of the plague at present in the country, of that in Poland by Professor Seitman, and of the old plague of 1745, by Dr. Layard, from his Essay of |