New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1866-03-29

country farmers satisfied themselves in tracing
it back TO the cow-kecpers of the metropolitan
districts "a class more or less kindred with our
own metropolitan swill-mlk makes), and there
stopped inquiry. That the disease was I'M.
ported from Russia. and communicated from tho
large centers, is however, the more accepted
belief. 1t is remarked that in Russia animals
are in general treated with greater hardship
and discomfort than in any other part OF
Europe But We have no doubt that in the
crowded cattle.markets of England there was
every condition to invite the disease. London
periodicals have related, from time TO hme'
those mysteries of atrocity which, in the con:
veying, driving and killing Of fevered and OK
haustcd flesh, make up part OF tic popular
beef supply of London. The fact seems cOnSe-
quent and obvious-a timely warning, too,
against the dangers Of our own slaughter
house system-that in all the earlier stages of
the plague the greatest ravagcs occurred in the
metropolitan districts. We are believer in
that trite, patent maxim which declares that
there is no reason whatever for epidemic in ma
ture; but if Cholera breaks out among men who
are packed and penncd together in artificial
pest.hOles, no wonder, then, that the plague
will at last infect the brutcs which, in a hund.
red nameless ways. undergo untold miseres
that the barbarous indiiierentsm of cviliza-
ton cannot afford TO inact directly upon itself.
The wretched contact Of budding, driving, and
sitting crowds of insane and distempered ami
mails, is conserved to give taste to our COM
mon beef. Itwould not surprise us to hear that
all the unnecessary torture which beef under
goes before It is eaten reacts, in some measure,
upon the eater. Inspectors of meat and milk
have only a superficial Office. Laws against
cruelty to animals, and societies for its detec
ton and prevention are urgently needed.
Az yet no decided measures have been taken
in England to check or stay the epidemic. Prof.
Gamgee, it appears predicted its wide spread
from the start, unless an immediate resort was
had tothe poe-ax, the iavorite Dutch and Pris-
sian mode Of extirpation; but this apparently
cruel and costly. but now CIT seems) necessary
method, has not, till Of late. gained the mind of
the authorities. The Profo ssor further argued
that, as the disease proceeds from contact. the
transportation of cattle in large numbers should
be at once stopped on all the large railways,
and that cattle-sales and beef shows should be
suspended in the market towns-an advice fol-
lowed in part by local communities, which have
even gone so far a. TO close the ordinary live
meat markets for months giving wide room
10 the vegetarian doctrine. and q text
and sway Of which it had not dreamed. Bat 1t
was not till about month ago that the sugges-
tions of Prof. Gamgce and Others took shape in
bill presented in Parliament by Sir John Grey.
One feature Of this bill, providing for the COM
pensation Of cattle-owners by the collection of
land-rates, gave rise to debate in which Bright
and Mil took par, against the stubborn de-
tenders of that oppressive privilege and curse
Of the English economy, the law OF primogeni-
tuTe. The aristocracy, who are mainly the land
owners. and can rent their lands at artificial
prices, propose, in short, TO lay the added ex-
pense Of the plague principally on tho impov-
erished farming classes Of lcsseeS, who are the
greatest losers by the calamity, and whom, too
frequently, its rayages have cut short Of ability
to pay their years rent. Now. it is vigorously
insisted that the land monopolists or nobility
should take their due, proportionate land-share
Of the burden which threatens 10 fall SO heavily
on the farmer; aud thus the cattlc-plague, if it
lasts long enough, promises to assail with some
effect the enormous immunity of hereditary ten
ure in Enland.
All methods of treating the plague have thus
far proved Intellectual, except in a few cases.
Alopathy and homeopathy have been explored
in vain for curative. Vaccination, after
thorough trial, has failed. In Holland, where
the pest is also at its hight, a number of cattle,
il il said, have been cured at very early period
of the disease by the ell.known hydropathic
practice of rubbing aud wet-packing. Ger
man grazer is reported TO have applied petro.
leum to the skin and food of the animal with
preventive success. Finally, an American doc.
tor undertakes to show that the disease is caused
by parasites growing on the skin, and can be
checked by washing Of corrosive sublmate.
This theory, which appears wide apart from the
experience of English doctors, would link the
Cattle-plague with the Trichina disease now
DESTROYING tho pork-eaters of certain parts of
Germany; but no conclusive sign of the worm
has yet been found in beef. According to-
Mr. Townsend Glover, who wrote in November
last from Europe, the disease is not at all
mike that which was SO alarmngly epidemic
in Florida some years ago, where cattle were
stricken down, after q short suffering, in ap-
parently "good condition, till post-mortem
examination proved the contrary. ltmay be as