The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-20 00:00:00

The Cattle Disease.

Miss Burdett Coutts has written the following
account of the ravages of the cattle disease in her
herd of milch cows :

" Holly-lodge, Highgate, Sept. 8.
" Herewith I enclose my bailiff's report of the cattle
plague which has visited my diary. I should have sent it
earlier, but that my bailiff and herdsman went to the sea-
side for a few days, and that I have also been myself ex-

tremely occupied with the various orders necessary to be
given to avoid perpetuating the disease.
" In the presence of so alarming a visitation one feels an
amount of individual responsibility for all one does orleaves
undone. I therefore do not scruple to lay before you the
reasons which induce me to adhere to the opinion that the
disease is the Russian murrain, brought in by imported
cattle.

" The conclusion as to the source of the disease, come to

by a perfectly impartial person, who has been face to face
with the disease, may not be without use, and it is need-
less for me to say that it is a matter of perfect indifference

to me which of the three theories put forward may ulti-

mately prove correct :
" 1. The state of the cowsheds of London.
" 2. The state in which imported cattle are allowed to

come into our market.
" 3. The Russian murrain.

" Of the two first, allow me to say that it appears to me a

disgrace to our legislation, and wholly at variance with our
professed civilisation, not to say religion, that it should be
possible even to advert to these as the most probable sources

of this disease. But whatever other diseases these sources

may by a retributive justice give rise to among us, I cannot
myself look upon them as those of this present plague. Pos-
sibly a peculiar condition of the atmosphere may call into
sudden action evil which has long lain dormant, and the

cowsheds, cattle vessels, and railway trucks may, on this
supposition, be connected with this outbreak of the evil, but
it strikes me as singular that this evil should take the precise
form of the rinderpest, when we consider that all the con-
ditions of life and climate in England and the Steppes of
Russia are so wholly different: With the exception of the
outbreak of 1745, England has not suffered from this dis-
ease, so well known in northern Europe. But I understand
that, until lately, we have not imported cattle from Russia,
and our immunity has been doubtless due to the pre-
cautions taken in Germany to prevent its ravages
in that country. This year cattle have been im-
ported direct from- Russia, and I have been informed
that about three months since an inquiry was made at the
Islington Market as to whether there were any restrictions
upon Russian cattle.' The question implied a suspicion
that such instructions should exist, and suggested the reason
for them. It is surely a singular coincidence that tho
sources of disease, always existing among us, should cease
to lay dormant, and burst forth into Russian murrain
simultaneously with an importation of cattle from that
country, and should exist with the greatest virulence in the
very market to which it is generally supposed the largest
portion of the herd was sent. lam aware that it has been
reported that Hull, where the animals were landed, has not
been visited by the disease, and that it cannot be traced
with certainty into the London market from the sale of this
herd. But as it is also asserted that there are no means
whereby English and foreign cattle can be distinguished in
the market, I do not see how the absence of the animals can
be affirmed with any certainty. The one fact remains un-
contradicted, that a cargo came from Russia, and is dis-
persed somewhere about the country. Ido not, however,
form my opinion as to the origin of our present distress
upon this fact solely, but I also find in Dr. Budd's report
upon the rinderpest an explanation of many of the peculiar
phenomena it has exhibited, and for which we seek to ac-
count. I did not read, as I should not have understood,
the purely medical portion of Dr. Budd's report, but I be-
lieve that though the symptoms of the disease in England

may have been modified by climate, water, food, and other
influences, yet its course during its progress and at its close
in death corresponds to the course of the disease as described
in Dr. Budd's report. His account of the rinderpest is the
more significant and valuable from the circumstance that it
was written without reference to the existence in England
of the disease now prevalent among our cattle, and that the
similarity between the two diseases has not ever been, to
my knowledge, denied. I therefore assume this to be the
case, and cannot but think Dr. Budd's observations offer a
clue to much that perplexes us in the manifestation of this
complaint. He states that these animals suffer most from
the rinderpest who have never had it in their race ; for
instance, the young of animals who have gone through
the disease take it more mildly and transmit the tendency
to its influence in a modified form. He also observes that
no animal takes it twice. In these two points it bears an
analogy to diseases common among us, such as smallpox ;
and as in these diseases there are exceptions found to rules
otherwise general, so similar exceptions might possibly be
found in the rinderpest; still the rule remains. Another im-
portant piece of information to be found in the report is
this, that while sheep, dogs, and other animals are imper-
vious to the disease, they can convey its poison. Now it
seems to me that these observations would account for the
phenomena we have observed:—
"1. The sudden breaking out of the disease in various
parts of the country and under very different conditions.
"2. The immunity of the animals of one shed and the
virulence with which it attacks those of an adjoining shed.
"3. The severity with which it has usually attacked
English bred cattle.
" We could thus account for the circumstances observed
in Hull. Of the 300 beasts landed, there is no reason to
suppose that all were sick, and the healthy may have re-
mained at Hull or in that neighbourhood, or all may have
been sent away, the sick to carry pestilence, while of the
healthy no trace would be found. The infected cattle might
herd with home-bred cattle peculiarly liable to take the dis-
ease, or with imported cattle less likely to take it for the
reasons assigned by Dr. Budd; and possibly some of our
own herds of home-bred cattle might take it less severely
from its having been in their race, for we should bear in
mind that we have had the disease in England in 1745, and
that it then lasted 14 years, notwithstanding the strongest
measures taken by the King in Council to prevent it. Of
course it would require long and patient investigation and
observation to prove or disprove these suggestions. The
same train of reasoning would also apply to the Dutch cattle
imported from Holland, which have suffered cruelly. Most
of them would be, like our home-bred cattle, peculiarly
liable to the complaint. Holland is usually guarded, like
ourselves, from its inroads by the precautions of Germany
for its own safety. We know, however, that in 1857 the
disease penetrated into Prussia. Ido not know how far it
was checked by the strict cordon kept to exclude it, or how
far its influence extended ; but during a time of war such
cordons are not easily maintained, and some animals' con-
veying the plague may have come to our shores either
through Prussia or Holland, where the cattle have been said
to be sickly for some cause or another for some time past.
"My own conviction, that we have the rinderpest among
us, is so decided that I venture earnestly to press upon your
attention the urgent necessity for a systematic attempt to
discover an effectual mode of treatment. We cannot alto-
gether prevent importation, and when this panic has died
out people will again become careless; and though I heartily
hose that the system of bringing the poor creatures to
market may be humanised, and the state of our cattle-sheds
permanently amended, still efficient inspection can never
be relied on except under the pressure of danger; and the
signs or the disease are so peculiarly subtle as to elude even
careful and self-interested watching.
"I might have sold innocently the day before its seizure
the worst case. I had in my dairy a cow with a calf I was
particularly anxious to save, and which had remained ap-
parently healthy throughout the previous fortnight, while
the disease was at its height among the other cattle.
Would it be impossible for the Government to select a
certain number of chemists' shops as depots in different
parts of the town (such as Savory and Moore, in Bond-
street), where information as to the signs, especially
the early signs of the disease, could be procured, together
with certain information as to the medicines and modes of
treatment which had been foiind curative or even which
mitigated the form of the disease? It would be import-
ant to alleviate the sufferings the animals endure, and to
render their bodies less dangerous when dead. lam about
to set some inquiry on foot myself on these points. A
few gentlemen kindly give me their help. May I hope for
any assistance from Government in carrying out my pro-
ject ? There are several other very grave subjects on which
information is'greatly needed. Is the meat of diseased ani-
mals fit food for man or for animals in any stage of the dis-
order? I have heard of sickness lately in kennels. Can
this be attributed to the meat given to the dogs ? The
milk also ; is it fit for use either during the attack or im-
mediately after it? Some of my cows gave milk after doses
of bisulphate of soda. I did not allow it to be used, but it
could scarcely be expected that others should do this whose
livelihood depended upon their supply of milk ; and if un-
necessary to be done, the waste would be equally to be de-
plored. On the recovery of the only cow saved out of my
herd of 20, the milk was given to some pigs. They rejected
it at first, and after taking it sickened slightly. I forbad its
use for a week. Surely it is a point of great importance to
the public health, and should be ascertained, and inspectors
should have the power of certifying that an animal is or is
not in a fit state to be milked.
"At present no one knows where to turn for any advce,
and it seems to me, and I believe I may add that I repre-
sent the opinions of many, that on such an occasion as the
present our Government should take the lead in guiding us
how to act, and in assisting us to meet an emergency which
is full of difficulty and danger to all classes. According to
the account of the murrain drawn up in 1745, the spring
months proved the most severe, whilst it slumbered in the
winter. We must not, therefore, reckon upon its ceasing
with the year; nor should we forget that we have not the
cold which in Russia, I presume, checks the infection, and
the absence of which accounts for the still greater severity
with which it is said that the disease has visited Egypt,
which is afflicted with this as well as with cholera."