The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-17 00:00:00

EDITYS

SPORT

Palestin

In Fund

SUN OFFICE, 7 o'CLocK.

16
20
22
28

It is estimated that the route just described, if
properly carried out, will occupy the party till
April, when it will become too hot to work with
safety, and when it is intended that they shall re-
turn.

I must not forgot to say that regular meteorolo-
gical observations will be taken throughout, and
that specimens of natural history, botany, &c., will
be collected, and photographs and sketches made
with care, and in large numbers.

Whether the object of the next expedition will
be something arising out of the present preliminary
party, or be devoted to a thorough examination
of the geology of the country, must depend on
circumstances. Meantime funds are urgently re-
quired. The subscriptions hitherto promised amount
to over £3,000, of which £5OO has been already
expended in the survey of Jerusalem ; £2,000
was voted for the present expedition, but, owing to
the cattle plague still raging in Syria, and the recent
visitation of locusts, the price of all requisites for
travelling has so much increased that it is not im-
possible that that sum may have to be exceeded.

The names of the committee and officers of the
fund will be found in ybur advertising columns of
this day, and I shall be happy to forward a detailed
statement of the objects of the association, and a
full report of the meeting at Willis's Rooms, with
a list of subscriptions to the present time, to any one
interested in the object who will communicate with
me.—l am, sir, your obedient servant,
G. GROVE, Hon. Secretary.
Sydenham, S.E., Jan. 16.

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING,:',TANUARY 17, 1866.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—As numerous persons have expressed a
desire for more detailed information on the route
and objects of the first expedition of this association,
a short report of which you were kind enough to in-
sert in the Times of the 6th inst., I now take leave
to make the following statement on the subject :
The expedition is under the charge of Capt. C. W.
Wilson, Royal Engineers, who conducted with so
much ability and tact the Ordnance survey of Jeru-
salem in 1863 and 1864. Capt. Wilson has under
his orders Lieutenant Anderson, R.E., an officer,
like himself, of much experience in surveying and
observing, and a corporal of Engineers, who is afirst-
rate photographer. They are well provided with
chronometers, barometers, and other meteorological
and surveying instruments, in regard to which the
fund is indebted to the kind offices of Genera]
Sabine, President of the Royal Society ; Mr.
Glaisher, F.R.S.; Rev. Charles Pritchard, P.R.A.S.;
Mr. Gassiot, F.R.S. ; Mr. Charles Frodsham, and
others. They are also furnished with every re-
quisite for making and preserving collections in
botany, natural history, geology, &c. Few private
expeditions have probably gone out to any country
better provided. At 'the request of Earl Russell
(one of the committee of the fund) the Sultan has
issued a firman to the authorities of Syria empower-
ing Captain Wilson to make all necessary explora-
tions and excavations.
The object of the expedition is in the main ten-
tative, to ascertain what special lines of explora-
tion may be followed out in a more detailed and
leisurely manner by future parties. At the
same time there are many things which this party will
be able to effect with certainty. They will ascer-
tain with precision the position of many places not
yet ascertained, and the uncertainty of which keeps
the maps of the Holy Land in constant incorrect-
' ness. They will endeavour to record correctly the
main features of some districts which up to this time
are in confusion on the maps. They will make di-
rect explorations of niany spots important in their
bearing on the historical geography of the country,
but which have not yet been explored by parties
possessing the leisure or special knowledge possessed
by Captain Wilson and his associates. This will
become more evident as I enumerate the more
prominent points of the route generally laid down
for the party. At Beyrout they are instructed
to examine the sculptures of Sennacherib, Rameses,
&c., at the Dog River. Near Damascus is an arti-
ficial mound of considerable size, which is reported
by Porter and others to be of Assyrian character.
This will be excavated, and the cylinders, slabs, or
other objects (should such be found) will be pre-
served. Harran el-Awamid, a village east of
Damascus, has been lately brought into sudden
prominence as a representative of the Haran of the
Scriptures, in place of the Harran in Mesopotamia,
hitherto believed to be that spot. This will be
examined and excavated if necessary, and plans and
photographs taken. At Banias the sources of the
Jordan will be investigated, and an attempt made
to discover the Lake Phiala of Josephus, the pre-
sent identification of which (Birket-er-Ram) is more
than doubtful. Descending the Jordan, Kedes—
the Kedesh of the story of Sisera--will be explored,
an attempt made to discover the site of Hazor,
which played so important a part in the troubles at
the time of the conquest.
The first serious halt of the party will be at the
upper end of the Lake of Galilee, where an endea-
vour will be made by careful examination of the ruins
at Tell Ham, and by exploration and excavation at
Khan-Minyeh and at Ain-el-Madilwara (the round
fountain) to elucidate the situation of Capernaum,
Bethsaida, and the other towns of Gennesaret. It
seems more than possible that among the extensive
remains of architectural fragments which strew the
ground at Tell ham, some inscriptions may be found
to throw a new light on this vexed and hitherto
hopeless question, of such deep interest to all readers
of the Gospel narrative. While here explorations
will be made on the eastern side of the lake, with
the view of reconciling the curious discrepancies
pointed out by the Dean of Westminster (Sinai and
Palestine, chap. 10), and thus throwing light on the
spot where the healing of the demoniacs and the
destruction of the swine took place.
The level of the lake above the Mediterranean wil]
also be taken, the existing observations on which
vary no less than 300 ft. South of the lake Beisan
will be visited. This is the ancient Bethshean, one
of the oldest Canaanite towns in the country, and
for long the seat of a peculiar idolatry. It contains
also very extensive and interesting Roman remains.
At Zerin, the ancient Jezreel, explorations will be
made in the hope—faint, it must be allowed—of
finding some traces of the city of Ahab and Jezebel.
Nablus (the ancient Shechem) will be the second
halting place. Here the ruins on Mount Gerizim,
both those already known and those which are
either little known or only as yet suspected, the
reported existence of Luz, or Luzah, on the moun-
tain Mount Ebol, the Samaritan Pentateuch, &e.,
will give ample opportunity for exploration and
record. Not far from Nablus is Sebastiyeh
(Sebaste, Samaria), which as the capital of the
northern kingdom of Israel, the favourite
residence of Herod, and the site of a remarkable
Christian church, built over the presumed tomb
of John the Baptist, is full of promise. From this
point excursions will be made to Kefr Saba (Anti-
patris), an Herodian city, described by Josephus as
abounding in fine buildings, with streams and trees,
but which now exhibits not a vestige of either above
the sand, and to Cesarea Athlit, Tantura (ancient
Dor), and other places on` the coast. While at
Nablus a reconnoissance will be made of the coun-
try lying between it and the Jordan, the structure
of which is very complicated, and cannot be recon-
ciled on the present maps ; Salim, east of Nablus,
said to contain great springs of water, and Ain-Un
near it, candidates for the Salem and Anon of St.
John the Baptist, will be visited, and an attempt
made to fix the exact latitude of the embouchure of
the Wady Zerka (Jabbok) and Wady Obeideh on
the further side of Jordan, hitherto the despair of
the map-makers.
Proceeding southward from Nablus several places
of promise will be explored. Seiluun (Shiloh), so
long a sanctuary and a seat of the Tabernacle ;
Tibneh, probably 'Timnath-Serah, the burial-place
of Joshua, containing extensive and elaborate tombs,
hitherto only cursorily examined by M. de Sanley,
but promising to be both interesting and important,
Beitin (Bethel), abounding in ruins. In the neigh-
bourhood of Jerusalem Wady Bittir (possibly the
ancient Bether), and the Frank Mountain, the
Herodium, or fortress of Herod, will be explored.
At Jerusalem itself what can be done will depend
much on circumstances, and must be left mainly to
the judgment of Captain Wilson, even if it can be
touched at all on the present occasion.

Yesterday, at a meeting of the Commissioners of
Sewers, held at Guildhall, Dr. Letheby presented a
very voluminous and important report upon the
cattle plague. Ile commences by saying that the
most remarkable event of the year 1865 had been
the prevalence of a frightfully fatal disease among
cattle, and that the malady was first seen in the
filthy cow-sheds of London, where, if•it was not ac-
tually generated, it was so intensified that its force
became irresistible, and it spread in all directions.
Hardly six months have elapsed since it appeared in
the metropolis, and yet it has reached the remotest
districts of Great Britain, and has travelled into
Holland, Belgium, and France. In this country
alone not less than 60,000 animals have been at-
tacked by it, and of these about 45,000 have died or
have been killed. It is the fatal murrain from the
steppes of Russia, and its proper home is in the
grassy steppes of Central Asia, where it is a com-
mon endemic disease. The origin of the present
outbreak in England is most obscure, for although
it may be conceded that the disease is of a specific
origin, and has been imported into this country, it
is by no means certain how or when it came among
us ; and those who declare that it came here with a
cargo from Revel, in May last, have disregarded a
great number of very important facts which tend to
cargo.show t A
that there is nothing to connect it with that
probable source of the malady is with the
cattle imported from Holland, for it was 44 Dutch
cattle from the Metropolitan Cattle Market which
took the plague into Norfolk as early as the Ist of
July, and it was five Dutch cows from the same
market which infected Lord Granville's farm at
Child's-hill. But, let it have come to us whence it
may, it evidently found the cattle of this country
in a fit state to receive it, and no doubt it gained
strength in the unnatural condition of the cows in
the London dairies, for there it has been remarkably
fatal. Out of a total of about 16,000 COWS in the 1,300
sheds of London there have been about 7,300 attacked,
and of these about 3,300 have died, and 3,100 have
been killed. According to the return of the East
London Cowkeepers' Association in November last
there had been 1,185 cows destroyed out of a total
of 4,873, and 2,749 had been sold at a large sacri-
fice. These numbers show that about 20 per cent.
of all the cows kept in London have actually died
from the disease, and nearly the same proportion
have been killed. There has, therefore, been a total
destruction of about 40 per cent. of all the cows in
London, and perhaps not less than 50 per cent. have
been sold for slaughter, either to avoid the disease,
or with the first symptoms of it in them. In all
England the returns from the Veterinary Depart-
ment of the Privy Council-office to the end of
December were as follows :—Attacked, 73,549 ;
died, 41,491 ; killed, 13,931 ; recovered, 7,045 ;
remaining, 11,082. The extent of its future pro-
gress can hardly be estimated, for with the present
mode of dealing with the disease it may remain with
us for years. At the last visitation, in 1745, it
stayed in the country for 12 years, and it destroyed
at least 200,000 animals, 160,000 of which died and
the rest were killed. The prospect before us, there-
fore, is not encouraging, and it is high time we
should review the knowledge we have gained and
apply it to the future. Remembering that it is an
imported disease, we are in constant danger of a
similar visitation, and the utmost vigilance should
be exercised at our places of import, the number of
which should be reduced to one or two, having a
sufficient staff of skilful inspectors to supervise all
imported animals. All steppe cattle, or cattle from
suspected districts, should be subjected to quaran-
tine or slaughtered at the place of importation,
and then the dead meat instead of the living
animals would be sent to the city markets. The
disease is frightfully contagious. The nature of the
infectious matter is not yet discovered, but it is, to
use the words of the Royal Commissioners, subtle,
volatile, and prolific in the highest degree. It is living
germitral matter, so minute that its particles are pro-
bably less than one hundred thousandth of an inch
in diameter. A single infected animal placed in a
public market, or permitted to travel along the
highway, may be the means of unlimited contagion.
As many as 200 diseased bullocks have been
exposed for sale at one time in the city market,
mixing with from G,OOO to 7,000 beasts, besides
from 30,000 to 40,000 sheep, and many hundreds
of calves and pigs ; whereas, if the disease is to be
checked, all traffic in live stock should be stopped,
all diseased animals isolated, and all infected sites
and vehicles disinfected. As regards the symptoms
of the disease, it is thought that the longest period
of incubation is nine days, and that a quarantine
of ten days is absolutely safe. In some cases of great
malignity the animals have died in from 12 to 14
hours after the commencement of the attack, but
in most cases the disease is protracted to the fifth or
sixth day, and occasionally to the eighth and ninth.
In some places, where the nature of the disease was
not recognised, and the animals were let alone, the
mortality was only 50 per cent. This was so in the
outbreak among the Dutch cattle at Mr. Leed's
farm in Norfolk, where out of 26 cows that were
attacked 13 recovered. During the first two months
of the visitation of the disease in Holland, 3,319
animals were infected, and of these 1,169 died and
674 were slaughtered. This is at the rate of 55 per
cent. In 1862 the number of cattle attacked by the
plague in the Austrian dominions was 2M,000, of
which 152,000 died. This is only about 51 per cent.
Again, in the year 1863, when the disease invaded
Galicia and overran the whole kingdom of Hungary
and its dependencies, 14 per cent. of the cattle took
the disease, but the average mortality in Hungary
was not above 65 per cent. lii Russia, also, during
the year 1864, 159,476 cattle were attacked, and
104,714 died or were killed. This, also, is only at
the rate of 66 per cent. ; but in London, where the
mortality has been great, and the slaughter still
greater, the loss has been raised to 87 per cent.,
while in all England the deaths have only been 56
per cent., and the total loss 75 per cent. There is
no actual cure for the malady, but there are means
of assisting nature in the progress of the disease and
of supporting the vital powers.
pectant measures of rationalmediTcinhees.e aTrehetyheonexly-
operate as defensive agents against the weakening
influences of the disease, but they may turn the
hesitating scale and give victory to nature, and they
are best applied in the early stages of the disorder,
when the system has not been much weakened by
the attack. A warm stable, with good ventilation
and nourishing drinks, are the fipt among the
palliative remedies. Dry foods are especially to be
avoided. Diluted alcoholic drinks and the prepara-
tions of ether and ammonia are recommended. in
addition to this the action ofruthbesking,
and
doulbdy btheepurose-
elinasteed oil, may constipated,
ay b
a
e
as sulphur pro-
moted by warmth, by brisk
bin
of mild diaphoretics. As the bowels in the early
stage of the disorderar
h
gentle laxative, so
somewhat
w
advantageously given, and for the subsequent
diarrhoeaa
whtehn thebestenimal shows a desire for food, it
remedy is chalk and opium.
Lastly,
should be cautiously fed on easily digestible sub-
stances, as boiled carrots, or turnips, or meal.
Dr. Letheby appears to coincide in the opinion of
Dr. Murchison, that the disease presents the
strongest analogy to smallpox,
and that, as small-
pox in the human subject is made less severe by
vaccination, so also it may be possible to induce a
milder form of the cattle plague by passing it
through the system of another animal. He thinks
it very probable that in the early stage of the dis-
order, before the more decided symptoms of fever
have shown themselves, the flesh of the diseased
animal may not be unfit for human food, but he
is of opinion that it would be very dangerous to
permit the unrestricted use of such meat in all
stages of the disease. lie then proceeds to show
that in almost every part of the world the regu-
lations for the sale of meat, the inspection of
cattle, and the management of markets and slaugh-
ter-houses, are far more stringent and precise than
they are in London, and he expresses a hope that
the experience gained by the present outbreak of
disease will lead to reformation in most of these par-
ticulars. He strongly advocates the pressing ne-
cessity which exists for the removal of all the
slaughterhouses from the city. There are 58 of
these slaughterhouses in the city, and they receive
about 5,400 sheep, 1,800 beasts, 420 pigs, and4oo
calves every week. All these animals must be driven
through the crowded streets, and the dung, and blood,