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APPENDIX A.
Copy of letter No. 365, dated 23rd March 1899, from the Superintendent, Civil Veterinary
Department, Bombay Presidency, to the Under Secretary to Government, Revenue Depart-
ment, Bombay.
"With reference to paragraph 3 of Government Resolution, Revenue Department, No. 1596,
dated 28th February 1899, I have the honour to submit my report on the questions raised
therein as follows :—
"2. A reference to Table XXIII in the Annual Report of this Department for 1897-98
will show that the percentage of deaths in the Ahmednagar and Sátára Districts, viz., 78.04
and 63.63 respectively, is quite normal and not in any way smaller than the average death-rate
67.25.
"3. With regard to the identity of rinderpest in this country with that existent in South
Africa, there can be no possible doubt of their being the same. The fact was demonstrated by
Professor Koch during his stay in this country in 1897 and during my attendance at the
Laboratory at Muklesar. There is also, besides the proof of the identity in the morbid anatomical
and pathological symptoms as demonstrated by Koch, whose views, I should say, can be un-
doubtedly accepted, the fact that the disease was introduced into South Africa from Central
Africa and Somáli land, whence it was obtained from Arabia and Central Asia, from which
country it was undoubtedly introduced into India, is further proof of the identity. The apparent
discrepancy in the virulence displayed in the two countries by the disease is easily accounted
for if certain facts are taken into consideration.
"4. The disease in South Africa has been prevalent for some 5 years, so that the media on
which the disease has to develop is absolutely new and consequently gives increased power to
the virulence. The cattle affected by it have never, through their ancestors, been exposed to
the disease; this fact, as is well known, has a powerful effect in rendering animals more sus-
ceptible to any contagious disease as was demonstrated by the introduction of small-pox amongst
the Negroes of the West Indies, where the percentage of death was out of all proportion, in
increase, of any epidemic that had in recent years affected Europe. In India the disease has
been prevalent for thousands of years and a certain amount of immunity has been purchased in
the present generation at the expense of former ones, so that the disease assumes a greater per-
centage of mild cases or passes over large numbers altogether; this, however, is not always
apparent, as has been shown in the Punjáb and Burmah within the last two years by the decima-
tion that the disease has caused in the cattle of these provinces. In the steppes of Russia,
where the disease has been prevalent since there is any history on the subject, the cattle are
not at all seriously affected, the percentage of deaths is comparatively small, and the disease has
become so attenuated that it has assumed a mild enzootic form, so much so that transport cattle
continue very often to work while suffering from the disease and still recover; if, however, this
disease were transplanted to more fruitful soil it would, no doubt, quickly regain its normal
virulence as was seen in the outbreak that occurred in England in 1869, which was probably
introduced from Russia. It is a recognised fact in dealing with cultures of bacteria that they
tend to lose their extreme virulence if transplanted from one media of the same material to
another for 5 or 6 generations; they require the stimulus of new soil to enable them to retain
their excessive virulence. This does not, however, suggest that we should sit down and wait
for the time to come when this state of things may arrive; it may never do so; the chances are
it will not. In small outbreaks which by systematic isolation, &c., have been kept localised,
no criterion can be arrived at, the example of the outbreak at the Government Farm at Kirkee
being a particularly bad one. There (1) it cannot be said how many cattle had previously been
affected by the disease and by their recovery had become entirely immune or sufficiently so to
only suffer from a mild attack. (2) They received the very best individual attention that
modern science could give them. (3) Mr. Mollison informs me that the percentage of deaths
even then was very high, and that amongst the very young stock bred on the farm there was
scarcely a case of recovery.
"5. In South Africa, again, the spread of the disease is greatly facilitated by the way in
which the cattle graze; they herd in immense numbers almost wild, without having any of the
individual attention or being separated into small herds as in the case in this country; there the
individual cattle-owner owns whole tracts 6f country in which no division is attempted; here
cattle-owners are on a very small scale and animals are herded in small numbers and entirely
separated from other herds. In South Africa, the getting over of this difficulty was attempted
by putting long double lines of fencing. This tended to stay the march of the disease, but
such is the subtlety of the virus that it can be taken long distances in the dirt attached to a
man's boots, in sacks, clothing, fodder, &c., or by any means which will protect it from the
effect of the direct sun's rays.