The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.--A long memoir on the treatment of the
cattle disease has been prepared by order of the
Privy Council, and published with the authority of
that Department. It does not speak much for the
resources of veterinary science, for it recommends
that an animal attacked by the disease should be in-
continently knocked on the head with a poleaxe, and
buried as it lies. That is the " best and safest"
treatment. Just so it was held by ancient physi-
cians that in a certain class of maladies there was
nothing like taking the patient at once and smother-
ing him between two feather beds. However, the
meaning of the directions before us is probably this
—that it will, in the long run, prove safer to kill the
first animal infected, and so reduce the risk of con-
tagion, than to attempt a difficult and doubtful cure
at the cost of keeping the poison among the herd.
That tho cattle disease now rife in our pastures is
not absolutely incurable has been established beyond
doubt ; in some places even a fair proportion of
cases has been successfully treated ; but a cow under
treatment may infect other cows, whereas a cow five
feet underground can do no such mischief. It is
assumed, in short, as a leading maxim, that all our
care should be given to prevention, and not to cure.
We must keep animals from catching the plague,
and one preservative is to kill those which have
caught it. For the rest, a more elaborate digest of
the " principles and practices of disinfection" than
we yesterday published was never seen. A Hindoo
does not protect his caste with more minute pre-
cautions than are recommended to farmers and
herdsmen. A powder mill could be visited with less
trouble than a dairy farm. If this is the right course,
and very possible it may be, our agriculturists will
not lose their reckoning for want of sailing direc-
tions. The theory seems to be that this typhus
fever now prevailing among horned beasts is not epi-
demic, but is most horribly contagious. Contagion,
indeed, appears to be the characteristic of the dis-
order. The French call it the " contagious typhus
of cattle," and that designation conveys the real
type of the disease. It is not merely typhus ; in
fact, for anything that we know, our cows may be
subject to typhus at any time ; but this is a typhus
which spreads like wildfire, and is communicable by
an infinity of means. It is not in the air, like
cholera or smallpox, though, perhaps, the air may
carry the infection within certain distances, but
there is hardly a relic or trace of an infected beast,
or of anything animate or inanimate with which
that beast has been in contact, which may not give
the disorder to another beast. That seems to be
the idea now accepted of the existing Cattle Plague,
and from it the instructions follow as a matter of
course. Kill the beast first infected and bury it
entire. " Disinfect" the shed, the stall, the manger,
the paddock, and the very grass of the field by fire,
water, or more composite agencies. Let no cow
touch, smell, or taste anything touched, smelt, or
tasted by the dead animal. Bury, burn, or destroy
every particle of possibly infected matter, and so
" stamp the plague out." We leave these directions
without further comment, nor do we deny that in
the confessed helplessness of veterinary authorities
they may be the best available. To be sure, they
are precisely such as were given by Virgil about
2,000 years ago, but if science has made no pro-
gress since then it is best to own it at once. Let
us " stamp out" this Cattle Plague by all means,
and as quickly as we can. When the plague and
the panic have disappeared together, perhaps we
may succeed in enlarging the scope of our informa-
tion and resources. No person, we think, can have
attended to this controversy, and to the facts out
of which it has arisen, without suspecting that much
remains to be discovered, and still more to be
proved. We are assured that this disorder is
simply typhus attacking cattle, and a well-known
correspondent of this journal remarked, indeed, that
from the symptoms of the plague, as described by
a cattle doctor, he could recognise from the begin-
ning to the end of its course the identical fever he
had so often watched by the bedside of human
patients. We know, however, perfectly well that
as regards mankind there is no type or description
of typhus, however intense in its malignity or
infectiousness, which might not be generated in
this country. Typhus fever, indeed, is a disease,
and perhaps the only disease, which can be
actually produced and developed without the aid
of unknown atmospheric conditions. Do what we
would in the .way of outraging Nature, we could
not, so far as we know, create cholera without the
presence of a specific poison beyond our reach or
knowledge. But typhus can be manufactured by
a process every stage of which is but too well known.
In the worst and most virulent form—that is to say,
when unresisted by science, and aggravated to the
utmost by ignorance and want—it is the Oriental
plague. Now, a scientific inquirer would certainly
ask himself how it happens that a disease which
among human kind can he developed in this coun-
try with such peculiar facility should, in the case of
horned cattle, not admit of any such production, or
be capable of appearing except through the impor-
tation of an infected subject from a certain country
a long way off. That is one question for considera-
tion. Another will certainly be suggested by the
extreme activity and communicability of the disease
when it has actually appeared. That the genera-
tion of certain diseases is confined to certain lati-
tudes we know very well, but then it is also found
that beyond such latitudes these local disorders will
either not spread at all or will take no stronghold.
For instance, it would be possible to draw a line
upon a map beyond which that particular type of
fever called "yellow fever" is never seen. The
disease requires for its diffusion the same elements
which it required for its origination, and if by chance
a case of yellow fever were found in this country we
might be quite sure that it was imported from
abroad. Butthe characteristics imputed to the Cattle
Plague are totally different from these. We are
assured that it is so local and peculiar a disorder
that, except in a comparatively circumscribed region,
and under conditions peculiar to that region, it
never can by any possibility be generated. The
elements required for its production are found on
the steppes of Russia and Hungary, and nowhere
else. That is one part of the case, and we can
quite understand it. But we are told the next
minute, and, indeed, we see with our own eyes, that
the disease, so intensely and absolutely local in its
origin, is literally without limit in its development
and naturalization. No malady of the most
thoroughly native and congenial kind could
take hold of our herds more strongly and freely than
this cdttle plague. It finds in our atmosphere, our
pastures, and our cattle every element necessary for
its dissemination and increase; indeed, we are justi-
fied in assuming that it finds them in perfection and
abundance. Not upon its native steppes could it be
more completely at home than it is here, where all
imaginable precautions are required to keep it from
sweeping over the country like the blast of a hurri-
cane. Are these conditions easily reconcilable ? We
should also like to know by what methods a disease
said to be singularly local, and yet seen to be essen-
tially migratory, is usually confined to the region of
its birth. How is it that, with such an intensity of
contagion, the countries actually adjoining the
steppes ever escape the murrain ? We have hardly
yet succeeded in raising a barrier between one county
and another ; how is a perpetual barrier maintained
between Russia and Germany, maintained not only
against importations of herds, but against such subtle
media of contagion as we have found to be sufficient
to communicate the disease ? Once more ; this
plague, we are told, always exists in Russia, and
therefore would have been at anytime communicable.
Was that famous Revel cargo the first and only con-
signment of Russian beasts we have received ? We
suggest these inquiries for deliberate anti impartial
consideration. The immediate work before us is, no
doubt, more urgent; but though the directions of the
Privy Council may absorb our attention and exer-
cise our vigilance at present, we cannot but suspect
that we shall find much to learn by and by when
the crisis and its alarms have subsided.

Po ST.-It is impossible not to sympathise with the
patriotism displayed in the visit of the Schleswigers
to Denmark, and, though mere sympathy will not
restore nationalities, it may eventually contribute
to sustain claims which are founded on moral right
and justice. The sentiments expressed in the fes-
tivities at Copenhagen are in accordance with the
ideas of the epoch. To a considerable extent they
have, no doubt, been inspired by circumstances,
and it must be observed that Germany is pri-
marily responsible for their adoption. The prin-
ciples of natural boundaries and community of lan-
guage were formerly held to be repugnant to public
law, but, now that public law has passed into a state
of abeyance, these principles have acquired a certain
equitable force. Treaties being destroyed, the theory
of nationalities has sprung from their ruins. The
situation may be abnormal, but it is the necessary
result of international anarchy. Schleswig was
guaranteed to Denmark by the last European Act of
Settlement, and it is actually held by Prussia as ter-
ritory conquered in war. Hence the Schleswigers
protest against the severance, and, as treaties are no
longer operative they contend that there are bonds
of fraternity which can neither be torn by war nor
peace. In effect, they appeal to the principle of na-
tionalities, and urge that the violent infraction of
legal rights has placed them in a position to as-
sert their natural rights. They are powerless,
they admit, but the principle they invoke is liv-
ing, growing, and potent, and if Schleswig is to
Denmark what Venetia is to Italy they see no
reason to despair. The question they raise is, it
need not be remarked, exceedingly comprehen-
sive, and ono that should be seriously considered.
It has been truly stated that if a country claimed
its natural boundaries, and claimed to be the
judge of where they were, it would be difficult to
decide what measures of precaution or resistance

ought to be adopted. This,
owever, is precisely
what Germany has done, and it is 2'l
not the intention
but the fait accompli that challen
tion. But in concluding peace with:Le-18 arsidke
great German Powers drew the boundary
n.th-
trha-
e
out reference to the principle of nationality an
that circumstance, together with the misapp:°;
priation of the Duchies, has probably led the
Schleswigers to hope that the arrangement is not
final. Such an assumption may hardly be said to
be unreasonable, and, on the other hand, it cannot
be regarded as immediately practical. Still, in
any event, it would seem that there is no alter-
native between the re-establishment of public lavi'
and the indiscriminate assertion of the rights of
nationalities. As a matter of fact, if a country be
at liberty to rectify its frontiers in conformity withc
so-called natural landmarks, or by a community 01
language, that must be accomplished either through
war or by a new act of settlement. If the question
is to be considered, it must be considered in all its
bearings ; and if the boundaries of States are to be
determined and observed, those who deride " map-
making" should recollect Mr. Pitt's exclamation
after the battle of Austerlitz. Let force be made
the measure of aggrandisement, and we may have
again to " roll up the map of Europe." It cannot
be dissembled that while some Powers are enlarg-
ing their borders in defiance of public engagements,
other Powers are taking note of their proceedings,
and the acts which are admitted under protest may
nevertheless be hereafter referred to as precedents.
Plainly, this amounts to preparing a basis for war,
and, in truth, Prussia has brought hostile princi-
ples all but into collision. The theory on which
the Duchies were wrested from Denmark has ob-
tained a locus standi, and in acquiring her northern
marches Germany has set an example which may
in due season be followed. Therefore the questioa
has to be considered from what must be called an
entirely new point of view. Whether the principle
which the Schleswigers rely on be a good principle
or a bad principle, it has crept into the discussion,
and there it will remain. It was announced in the
Congress of Paris, it was significantly maintained
in the London Conference, it was affirmed by Count
Cavour before it was enunciated by M. Drouyn de
Lhuys, and it has been conspicuously vindicated by
the Emperor of the French. The poor Schleswigers,
it must be allowed, can quote high authorities in
their favour; and, above all, in so far as they are
concerned, Germany proclaimed the doctrine, and
the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria
took up arms to propagate it. There can be very
little doubt, then, that in a future settlement of
European affairs this principle will be entertained,
and in considering the expediency of any course of
action it would be idle to ignore its presence. Nor
does it appear to consist with prudence to leave it
to be developed by events. It must be borne la
mind that at present the peace of Europe is only
disturbed or menaced, by the disorganised condition
of one country, and ostensibly in relation to terri-
tory of which another country has been, as it is con-
fessed, unlawfully deprived. Prussia and Austria,
can alone defend their seizure of the Duchies on the
principle of nationalities, and, however anomalous
it may be, the fact is that this principle has in a
manner demoralised Germany. It is admitted, too,
that in the public interest the Germans must have
the benefit, whatever it may be, of a community of
language. But the Germanic Confederation
hedged round with the bayonets of the two great
Powers who farm it as a privalte estate, and their
impunity is the source of the existing European
complications. It is possible that ultimately Den-
mark may profit by the theory on which she was
despoiled, and the loyalty of the Danish population
in Schleswig will doubtless weigh in the balance
when what has been done comes to be reviewed.
The provisorium cannot be indefinitely prolonged,
and, even if the great German Governments are
suffered to consummate an iniquitous transaction, it
will be on conditions which may not be misappre'
hended. In no form can such a flagrant departure
from the principles which govern civilized commu-
nities be sanctioned, and while Austria may be sum'
moned to acknowledge the rights of nationalities on
the Adriatic, Prussia is the very last Power II!
Europe that should venture to speak of natural
boundaries.