The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-26 00:00:00

The Cattle Plague.

The following important order in Council ap-
peared in a supplement to the London Gazette of
yesterday, Aug. 25 :
At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, the 25th day of
August, 1865. By the Lords of her Majesty's Most lion.
Privy Council. Present—Sir G. Grey, Bart.; Mr. Secretary
Cardwell.
Whereas, by an act passed in the session of the 11th and
12th years of her present Majesty's reign, intituled, " An
Act to prevent until the let day of September, 1850, and
to the end of the then next session of Parliament, the
spreading of contagious or infectious disorders among
sheep, cattle, and other animals," and which has since
been from time to time continued by divers subsequent
Acts, it is (among other things) enacted that it shall be
lawful for the Lords and others of her Majesty's Privy
Council, or any two or more of them, from time to
time, to make such orders and regulations, as to them
may seem necessary for the purpose of prohibiting or regu-
lating the removal to or from such parts or places as they
may designate in such order or orders, of sheep, cattle,
horses, swine, or other animals ; and to make any other
orders or regulations for the purpose of giving effect to the
provisions of the said Act, and again to revoke, alter, or
vary any such orders or regulations ; and that all provi-
sions for any of the purposes aforesaid in any such order
or orders contained shall have the like force and effect as
if the same had been inserted in the said Act ; and that all
persons offending against the said Act shall for each and
every offence forfeit and pay any sum not exceeeding £2O,
or such smaller sum as the said Lords or others of her Ma-
jesty's Privy Council may in any case by such order
direct :
And whereas a contagious or infectious disorder has
lately appeared, and now prevails among cattle within that
part of the United Kingdom called Great Britain, which is
generally designated as the " cattle plague ;"
And whereas it is expedient to take measures for pre-
venting such disorder from extending to that part of the
United Kingdom called Ireland.
Now, therefore, the Lords of her Majesty's Privy Council
do hereby, by virtue and in exercise of the powers given
by the said recited Act, and by the several Acts continuing
the same as aforesaid, oraler as follows :-
1. That in this order the word " cattle " shall be in-
terpreted to mean any cow, heifer, bull, bullock, ox, or
calf.
2. That after the date of the publication of this order in
the London Gazette, it shall not be lawful for any person to
remove any cattle from any port or place within that part
of the United Kingdom called Great Britain, to any port or
place within that part of the United Kingdom called Ire-

land.
And the Lords of her Majesty's Treasury are to give
such directions herein as may be necessary to insure due
obedience to this order. ARTHUR HELPS.

The following order has been issued by the Mana-
ger of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway :
Traffic Manager's-office, Manchester, Aug. 24.
Referring to my circular No. 307, of the 15th inst., Ibave
to request that you will strictly carry out the following
additional instructions on the subject :-
1. The regulations already issued as to sweeping and wash-
ing cattle trucks on arrival at a station, and after the cattle
have been discharged, are to be adhered to, in accordance
with mycircular of the 15th inst.
2. Cattle pens and stages and water troughs are to be
kept clean, arid when necessary the disinfectant referred to
in clause 3 is to be applied to the cattle pens and stages.
3. All cattle trucks, after they have been swept and well
cleaned with water, must be washed with a solution of
chloride of lime and of sulphuric acid and water, a supply
of which articles will be sent to you on application to Mr.
Badge, Store Department, Miles Platting. About of
chloride of lime should be mixed with a gallon of water, to
which must be added half a pint of the sulphuric acid and
water, which you will receive from the stores ready mixed.
The mixture of chloride of lime and sulphuric acid should
be put into a bucket and applied to the waggons with mops
and brushes ; the buckets, mops, or brushes so used must
not be applied to any other purpose.
4. If any cattle are tendered for conveyance which you
have reason to believe are infected with the cattle plague,
you must decline to receive them, or permit them to come
upon the company's premises.
5. If cattle which have been diseased, or which you hare
reason to suppose are infected, are received at your station
from any other station, the trucks in which they have been
carried must be immediately swept out, and under no cir-
cumstance again used for the conveyance of cattle or any
deecription of traffic until they have been washed with water,
and afterwards so disinfected as to render their use perfectly
safe.

6. If any diseased cattle are tendered for conveyance or
have been conveyed on the line, or if any cattle have been
killed or may be found dead in trucks in consequence of
the disease, immediate notice must be given to the public
cattle inspector, the superintendent of police, or any other
duly authorized public officer, and his instructions must be
acted upon. A report of the case must at the same time be
also sent to me.

7. Any person cleaning out the trucks, or in any way
coming in contact with diseased cattle, must not again assist
in loading cattle on the company's premises or go near them
elsewhere, until his clothes have been thoroughly disin-
fected, so as to prevent the possibility of contagion ; and no
shovel, broom, or other article used in cleaning the trucks,
!cc., must be again used until proper steps have been taken
to satisfy the public cattle inspector that there will be no
risk of their communicating infection.
JAMES S3strruELLs, Traffic Manager.
To Station Agents and others.

WIGTOWNSHIRE CATTLE PLAGUE
ASSOCIATION.

The following interim report has been made by
the Secretary, and is dated August 23 :

Having had an opportunity in Edinburgh of consulting
Professor Dick and also Mr. Roniains, who has studiedthe

cattle plague in Russia, and having myself visited some of
the Edinburgh byres, where a number of cattle are labour-
ing under the disease, I make this report for the use of the
conveners of parish committees.
In milk cows one of the first symptoms is the sudden
stoppage of milk. In all the cattle attacked there is dulness,
they cease to feed, the head hangs. In a day or two the
skin becomes so hot that the hand can sometimes feel the
heat (so Mr. Romains told me) at a distance of 6in. or 7in.
The coat becomes staring. After some days there comes
on an occasional and tremulous, but short and intermittent

shaking of the head, characteristic of the disease, and great
feebleness. In some instances which I saw tho shaking of

the head was preceded by a rapi I shudder all over. At this
stage there is usually great weakness.
Mr. Remains has no doubt that this is the Russian cattle
plague. He considers that the seat of the disease is in the
bowels—that it is an ulcerated state of the bowels. It is apt
to begin with constipation, and is sometimes followed by
looseness. In one case, which Mr.Romains considered hope-
less, the breathing was short, accompanied by low grunts.
Even in those cows which were considered in the way
of recovery there was a tendency to return of constipation,
and the faeces were very black. Discharge from the nose
and inflammation of the eyes, extending under the lids,
were mentioned as common symptoms. I saw one case in
which the eyes were suppurating.
Such of the cowfeeders as I saw have no doubt of the
infectious nature of the disease, and impute it to a lot of
foreign cattle which came down from London.
Five or six of the cowfeeders bought cattle from that
lot, and the disease broke out in these cattle in all their
dairies in from 10 to 14 days. This is not taken from the
published statements ; I got it from the mouths of some of
the men themselves by questioning them. They admitted
that when they discovered the disease they began to dis-
pose of their stock.
Their byres had been previously infected with pleuro-
pneumonia, which had been very fatal, and in several of the
cases the plague is complicated with the symptoms of
pleuro-pneumonia. It no doubt had weakened the cattle,
and prepared them ter receiving the plague infection.
The disease which has been described in the report of
the Prussian Commissioners, as known to Mr. Remains, is
quite distinct from the present plague, and, having no re-
lation to it, can only mislead if supposed to be the same.
Mr. Remains, the veterinary surgeon, who had studied
the plague in Russia, approves an attempt to crush the
disease on its first appearance by destroying such as have
come in contact with diseased animals. Professor Dick is
not so clear about that. He does not think it necessary,
and in Edinburgh it broke out at once in so man places
that it could not have been done. I understand him to
mean that in an isolated case it might be worth trial.
They both consider the disease curable, and under their
treatment some of the foreign cows which were first at-
tacked, as well as others, are now in the course of reco-
very, though still not free from disease. They have begun
to feed, and to pick up flesh, and their milk is returning.
Both Professor Dick and Mr. Romaine advise clearing
out the bowels, followed by tonics ; watching the bowels
and keeping them open. Their precise treatment is—At
first a bottle of linseed oil and a handful of salt. When
the physic has settled, four drachms sulphate of iron night
and morning, keeping the bowels open by a little sweet
ale occasionally.
This is the treatment under which some of the cattle
are recovering. In a case whore the cow was thought too
weak to stand more medicine—having been a considerable
time ill—the owner was using bran mashes.
I had a long conversation with Mr. Swan, who has taken
a very active part in the measures now in progress in
Edinburgh. He read to me a great deal of interesting
correspondence; among others a letter from one of the
British Consuls on the Continent, who denied, with some
indignation, that Russian cattle had been landed in Den-
mark, but mentioned incidentally a cargo from Riga (a
second Russian cargo) for this country. Mr. Swan said,
in answer to my inquiry, that he never heard of cattle
being imported into this country from Russia till recently.
He spoke hopefully of the prospect of the disease being got
under before it spreads much further.
The unhappy inclination which is too common on the
first appearance of the disease to conceal its existence, and
disperse cattle which have been in contact with the diseased,
is one of the most alarming circumstances connected with