The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-13 00:00:00

THE APPREHENDED MURRAIN.

As much alarm prevails on the subject of the
spread to this country of a murrain said to be pre-
valent on the continent at this time, the following
communication, made to the General Board of
Health by Pr. Greenhow, who has been employed
by that department to inquire into the subject, may
be of use in allaying exaggerated apprehensions..
'The communication is to be regarded as preliminary
'to Dr. Greenhow's detaled report, now in prepa-
ration :

"To THE RIGHT HON. W. MONSELL, M.P., PRESIDENT
OF THE GENERAL BOARD OF HEALTH, &C.

" Sir,—As great misapprehension and much unne-
cessary alarm have arisen from the repoited existence
of a very fatal and contagious murrain among the horned
cattle of those continental States from which cattle are
chiefly imported into this country, it is desirable that
the real facts should be Understood. The divase at pre-
sent or recently prevailing in Holstein, and the adjoin-
ing countries is the pulmonary murrain,' and is iden-
tical with the'' lung disease' that has proved so destruc-
tive among the herds and dairies of Great Britain and
:Ireland during the last 15 or 16 years.
" Although possessed of infectious properties in a
moderate deiree,' the lung disease' is known to arise
spontaneously under certain ill-understood conditions of
food and sea,on; and is not usually believed to Eave been,
imported hither from abroad, L. is almost universally
diffUsed`threughout this country, having from time to
time broken out in an epidemic form in particular localities,
and again disappea,red, without any very obvious cause.
Being already quits as prevalent here as on tee Conti-
nent, no danger exists to our cattle from the importation.
Of foreign cattle suffering from the disease.
" Notwithstanding this, all animals suffering from
this or any other serious disease that arrive from abroad
are detained by the professional inspectors of the Board
of Customs, and, if-necessary, immediately s'aughtered,
their bodies being effectually destroyed, if found, to be
unfit for human food, or, if otherwise, then delivered to
the owner. The lung disease* is the only epidemic dis-
ease at present prey- fling among the cattle in countries
from which horned cattle are 'imported' into Great Bri-,
tain.

"There is, however, another much more contagious
and fatal disease, called in Germany the Rinder-pest,'
or Steppe murrain, which appears to have been con-
founded with the lung disease, but which, with one or
two trivial exceptions, does net at present exist in any
part of Germany or the west of continental Europe.
This 'Steppe murrain' is a totally different disease from
the pulmonary murrain, and is spontaneously developed
only in Bessarabia, .Podolia, and other. countries of
Southern Russia, from which it is never absent, and
whence it frequently spreads by contagion into Poland,
and sometimes into Prussia and Austria.

"The most stringent measures are employed by the
Russo-Polish authorities, and by the Governments of
Austria and Prussia, to exclude this form of murrain
from their respective territories. A regulation was pub-
lished in Poland on the 9th of May, 1856, ordering the
indiscriminate slaughter of all beasts that should exhibit
any symptoms of the disease, under which, according to
a recent return, 20,000 animals have already been
slaughtered.
" Independent of these measures in the interior of the
country, quarantine stations have been established on
the Russo-Polish frontier, where beasts coming from the
East are detained for three weeks. Similar measures
for.• the exclusion and extirpation of the disease, should it
show itself within those countries, have long been in
force on the frontier of Austria and Prussia. In Aus-
tria the infected cattle are immediately killed•as soon as
they show any appearance of the murrain, their compa-
nions beinz kept in quarantine ; and regulations still
more stringent are enforced in Prussia, for both the dis-
eased animals and all .other beasts that have been in con-
tact with them are there killed and buried eight feet
under ground, quicklime being thrown into the pits.
"These regulations have been most sternly enforced,
and not only has the importation of cattle from Poland,
where the murrain is at present believed to exist, been
prohibited, but rage, hides, hoofs, hay, Wood, and simi-
lar articles likely to have been in any way connected
with cattle, and all persons suspected of having trans-
actions with cattle, have been forbidden to cross the
frontier. To enforce thege regulations detachments of
troops have been stationed along the frontier at all the
points of egress from Poland below Thorn.

"Notwithstanding these precautions the murrain
occasionally passes into Austria and Prussia, and intel-
ligence has been received by our Government that it his
recently been imported into both these monarchies. It
has been conveyed into Silwia, in the neighbourhood of
Breslau and Oppeln, by means of diseased cattle said to
have been purchased in Galicia, but has not spread into
any other Prussian province, and has, in fact, thus far
been confined to the oxen of the infected herd. Most
effective measures have been taken to arrest the disown,
`and, judging from the experience-of last year, there is
every, reason .to hope that its propagation will be pre-
vented,-and-its extinction secured.' ,

"As soon as the murrain was known by her Majesty's
Government to have reached Kowno, Tauroggan, and
other places in the vicinity of the Prussian 'frontier, an
order in Council was issued forbidding the importation
of cattle, and of, hides, horns, hoofs, fodder, or other
articles liielpto be vehicles for conveying the contagion
into this county, from any port in the Baltic east of:
Denmark, thus preventing all possible danger of the im
portation of this disease, so long as it shall be confined
to the eastern frontier districts of Prussia. In addition,
however, to this precaution, the greatest watchfulness
over the importation ofZ cattle is maintained by the
veterinary, inspectors of the Board of Customs, both at
London and the other ports of importation.--I have the
honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
"E. HEADLAM GREENHOW, M.D.,
Lecturer on Public Health at St. Thotnas's
Hospital,

"London, April 11.",