The Express.
London, England, 1865-09-07 00:00:00

JOHN BROGDEN'S GOLD CHAINS by troy
weight, at malleable vale*, sad tbe woelintanahlp
irhotrailo ufacturers' prima. l'lld
nation% samand re-purchased at the ;drcerdoll &Mad Pla-
• Here's the note,
Row 'meat your @halo wallahs to tbe stoma ern*
The Gnaw& olio'dhld. abuse for hidden.
611AUTIMIL
tgeoubokry, No. 10. Ilentladruileet, Coventiardan, W.C.,
Inodon.
Amp sande of chains and jewouery for Is. oath.
astabliahment to aloud at 6 In the evening. and on
latnntals &IA clock'

LONDON mud have a GENTLEMAN'S
SUPPER and MUSIC ROOM.—" EVANS," attar Alfred
Malion'a coacida

It Ike Orpreog.

TO ODZIPMPONDIOCTS.
,dvallamoOlo Intended for " TM Lefts Imodog
power, mule a uMe Olnew Mmadoslwyss, by Two
oblook os Me My of yoblicaboa.

HATKAAKET.
THU arum, THE ESNDEETOUS. Mks Oars DenvIL—
THE MERCHANT OF VENICL
lEMr.mis W. Montgomery.—
—And MON. Masora Robins and igi: Mans
Robertson, Csvendtsh, Pelham, mod Mn. Ysymond. Manisa&

PILING/ 1M
IllAtarrilLlNOS AND TIDDLLWRINOG.
—ALLAH NA POOU& Marra D. Bow!caul; J. 8,011011.4
Vaadastutf, D. Plabor, D. Marry. 8•00 a. (Amiss
bootiosalt and KW IL Wm.—And AN AMPLE APOLOGY.

BRITANNIA.
Tars Broom Till RIDg TO YORK. Mr. T. Drummareond.
—The Skeen oupe. - Lovrs DRUM. L Yeld...
&MIRK OON/TrIDLRATIR DAUGHTILL. We.
Mae & Mee

HIGH WATIII AT LONDON-1111DM
To/ Dom*— Morning, 2b. ADA....AttaraooA 30. Mu
T 440 HondaA 3A 37m.....Aftw0000. SA 5731.

LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7.

IT would be useless to deny that the measures
hitherto adopted to prevent the spread of the dis-
ease amongst cattle do not appear as yet to have
been attended with the slightest success. The
malady, at tint confined to the metropolitan dia•
tricts, has now so generally invaded the country
that there is scarcely a county from which we do
not receive reports of its inroad. And, even with
this amount of experience, if we sum up our total
of knowledge upon the subject, we are met with
scarcely any but negative results. We have not
been able to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion u
to whether the disease was originally imported, or
whether it cropped up spontaneously in our island.
We believe that it is contagious, but we do not

_ -
know for certain that it does not spread by other
means than actual communication from the con-

tact of one beset with another. We do not
know of any means of treatment by
which the disorder is influenoed in the

slightest degree. It is beet to acknowledge
all this at once. There is no ignorance so dlur

gerous ma the ignorance which runs riot under a
mask of wisdom. On the other hand, observation

of the symptoms during life and the patholoecal
conditions found after death points to a very close
resemblance' between the disorder and that which

has prevailed for many years past among the herds
on the Russian steppes• It would also seem to be
allied to the disease which ravaged this country

more than a century ago, and did not disappear
for nprards of ten years.
Tha proceedings which have hitherto been taken
have been founded apparently upon the belief—
first, that the malady was introduced from Russia ;
and, secondly, that its mode of propagation is by
contagion. In accordance with these views, a care-
ful inspection of all imported stack takes
place immediately upon its arrival. Exposure or
sale of infected beasts has been made penal, and
their slaughter compulsorily ordered. So far as
can be learned these orders are energetically carried
out. The plague, however, still holds on its
course, and seems to spurn every effort to sub-
due it. Is there the least ground for supposing that
persistence in so unsuccessful a procedure is likely
in future to be attended by any better results
It is quite possible that the disease may gradually
abate its violence, and then doubtless these mea-
sures will come in for the credit which certainly
does not now attach to them. It happens univer-
sally in the history of cholera, that after the climax
of its severity has been attained the intensity of
the disease lessens, and all remedies appear to be
successfuL The same remedies applied at the on-
set of the disorder are inefficacious.

The very natural conclusion is, that the treat-
ment applied may be left out of the argument.
It is, we insist, at the present time that stic•.eas
ought manifestly to follow the proceedings
adopted. And if we do not now observe that
success, we may safely conclude that we are on a
wrong track. To persevere under such circum-
et woes is to place an amount of faith in the cor-
rectness of our opinion respecting the mode in
which the disease spreads which is certainly not
justified by the basis on which it rests. As was
before remarked, we do not know that the disorder
was introduced from Russia, and we do not know
that it spreads by contagion. The value of the
proceedings adopted on such suppositions is repre-
sented by the value of the hypotheses upon which
they are founded, and must live or die with them.
The question whether the "Rinderpest" was intro-
duced from Russia or not is unhappily not now of
the same importance as attached to it a few weeks
since. Wherever it came from the disease is now
well established in the country. The point of urgent
interest just now is to ascertain the mode in which
a healthy beast becomes diseased. Appearances,
it must be allowed, are very strongly in favour of
transmission by particles of morbific material de-
tached from a diseased animal and applied to a
sound one. This is onlfpartially represented by
the expression " contagion." It has chanced that
our knowledge of the causes which influence sudden
outbreaks of epidemic diseases has been materially
increased of late years. The old doctrine of con-
tagion has undergone a considerable change. We
k iow now that particles conveying disease are
q site as frequently swallnwed as intro-'
d ,ced by any other method. In this
w y a disorder may be propagated from
one individual to another, without the least neces-
sity for their proximity. The poisonous material
may lie in drinking-water, or in the food that is
eaten. The researches of the late Dr. Snow
on this point were probably the most valu-
able oontributions to our knowledge of epidemic
disease that were ever supplied. With quite as
strong a history of what is ordinarily termed "con-
" tagion " as obtains in the case of the cows, Dr.
Snow succeeded in proving, in more than one in-
stance, that the actual transmission of cholera had
taken place through the medium of drinking
water.