The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-22 00:00:00

The Cattle Plague.

The following despatch has been received at the
Foreign-office, from her Majesty's Consul-General
at Odessa :

" Odessa, Jan. 8, 1866.
" My Lord,—The following important informa-
tion respecting the cattle plague has been kindly
supplied to me in answer to a series of questions I
addressed to Prince Manoukbey, and the principal
landowners and cattle breeders of Bessarabia. As
it differs materially from the information trans-
mitted to your lordship from the province of Kher-
son in my despatch dated November 24, 1865, and
as I can depend on the facts stated being in every
particular the result of actual experience, I lose no
time in submitting themto:your lordship's attention.
" 1. The Bessarabian cattle owners and breeders
state that the plague during the last few years has
been permanent in Russia. It exists sometimes in
one district, sometimes in another, of that vast
country. Up to the present nothing is known with
certainty either of the true cause of the disease, or
of the proper means of treatment for its cure. On
one point only there exists no doubt--it is certainly
contagious.

"2: No remedies which have been yet tried,
neither fumigation, friction, bleeding, nor medi-
cine, have met with enough success to warrant their
recommendation. From time to time a few beasts
recover, and each person attributes their cure to the
remedy he has employed, but general experience
has not confirmed such assertions in any case.
" 3. One opinion only appears to merit serious
attention, and is now under anxious consideration.
That opinion is in favour of vaccination, which the
Imperial Government has undertaken to introduce
throughout the infected districts by competent ve-
terinary surgeons employed for that purpose. Time
only can decide whether vaccination will afford a
sure protection from the disease—but at present it
seems to promise more satisfactorily than anything
else which bas been tried.

" 4. Effective means may be taken to restrain
the plague from spreading. For this purpose it is
advisable, as soon as it is found to exist in any dis-
trict, that all communication with other places
should be strictly prohibited.
"5. Dead animals should be buried as soon as
possible, and in no case should it be allowed to skin
them previously for their hides. They should be
buried in the state they die.
" 6. Great care should be taken not to suffer dis-
eased beasts to drink out of the same troughs as
healthy ones.

"7. -Healthy cattle should be separated at once
from the diseased, and immediately any beast falls
sick among them, the healthy cattle should be taken
away, and transferred to other pasturage. By these
means large herds have been entirely saved.
"8. These facts are indisputable. But there is
still to be mentioned a probable theory as to the
origin of the malady.

9. It is to be observed that the disease rages
more violently in the south of Russia than in the
north ; that it generally breaks out in autumn, and
not during the great frosts. Therefore it seems clear
that cold is not only far from being the first cause of
it, but has not even any influence over it. It is well
remembered that before the year 1846 (when free
trade in corn began with England), and when Odessa
exported much less grain to foreign countries than
now, this disease was very rare, but it appeared always
after every campaign in the wars with Turkey. Now,
these wars occasioned a great deal of cartage for the
commissariat of the army. The waggons used by
the commissariat were drawn by bullocks, who were
thus forced to make long journeys during the great
heats of summer across arid steppes, where no pas-
ture or wholesome water could be found, theplague
soon siezed them, and they rotted and died in great
numbers.

" The same cause will continue to operate in a
greater or less degree, till establishment of railways
puts at end to the transport of merchandise for long
distances by oxen. Until then it is more than pro-
bable Russia will be always devastated by this ter-
rible malady.
" Oxen are principally employed on the hardest
service during three or four weeks of the hottest part
of the year, during which they have no other fobd
than the withered herbs they can crop by the road-
side.

" Every year more than a million waggons, each
drawn by two oxen, coming from different parts of
the country, arrive from Odessa alone. As they
draw nearer and nearer to their journey's end their
food grows more and more scanty and worse in
quality, so that they are reduced for several days
following to feed upon the meagre roots of grass,
which they swallow mixed with dust, and quench
their thirst with the muddy liquid which remains of
the stagnant water left in ponds and puddles by the
roadside.

" 10. This seems to be really the sole cause of
their terrible disease, and the waggons returning to
their several homes spread it throughoutthe country.
"11. on examining an ox attacked by the plague,
it will be found that it first becomes dull and spirit-
less ; it ceases to ruminate, its eats with difficulty,
and its sufferings manifest themselves by a violent
diarrhea. This is a proof that the disease lies in
the digestive organs, and probably springs from im-
proper nourishment.
" The opinions of French doctors that this sick-
ness may be caught by men from diseased cattle is
not warranted by experienced in Bessarabia,,no case
having been ever known to have occurred there.
" The plague does not appear either to be caught
by sheep who have a disease of their own also con-
tagious, but which differs very much from the cattle
plague among oxen, and it may be remarked that
these 'two diseases very seldom exist at the same
time and place.—l have, &c.,
" E. C. GRENVILLE MURRAY.
" The Right Hon. the Earl of Clarendon, K.G." •