Report of Commission on the Cattle Plague / by Andrew Davidson, Secretary to Commission.

  • Andrew Davidson
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of Commission on the Cattle Plague / by Andrew Davidson, Secretary to Commission. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    30/148 (page 28)
    . Asia. Is this the disease which has been raging in Mau- ritius during the past 8 or 9 months To this question the Veterinary Surgeons unanimously reply in the affirma- The present epizoo- live, and with that opinion I entirely agree. The coniagious- he contagious. ^ggg q{ ^]^e present epizootie has never been questioned. The records of its progress from one estate to another, and its spread on each individual estate, afford evidence only too clear and abundant of this fact. It has shewn itself here to be an eminently contagious disease, like the Rinderpest in Europe. The appearance of the plague in any locality was not only a menace, but an almost certain warning, of its speedy out-break on the neighbouring estates. The manner in which it was conveyed irom place to place frequently eluded observation and could not be positively determined, but the fact that it was propagated either by contagion or infection, or in both ways, is beyond doubt. Way in which the How the disease was introduced into Grand Port is disease was introduced YYgii known. Cattle were removed Irom an infected loca- into Grand Port. ^-^^ d'Albert estate. What happened ^ In 12 or 15 days the disease had broken out on the neighbouring estates of Eose Belle and Joli Bois. The exact manner and time of the transport of the poison to the cattle on these two estates have not been, and probably never will be, ascertained; but the fact remains that the introduction of the disease at one spot in the district was speedily followed by its extension to the contiguous properties, and then by its rapid diffusion throughout the district. 1 do not recur to these facts in the wav either of imputing or implying blame to any one, but simply for the purpose of illustrating the contagiousness of the disease even in instances in which the exact mode in which it was diffused evaded observation. Grass as a ossible ^'^^ ^® noticed, however, in this connection, that means^y* whicWhe when Mr. Hall, the Sanitary Guardian, happened to be on contagion may be car- a visit to Mare d'Albert, on the -Ith June, he found an Indian lied. from Joli Bois carrying off some grass from the spot on which the diseased animals had been kept. This may not have been the actual source of infection at Joli Bois, but it was quite sufficient to account for its spread to that estate. Mr. Hall adds that he was informed that this was not the only occasion on which this had occurred. Mr. Hall fur- ther learned that Indians from other estates came out of Transmission by . • new disease ; and there is every human bemgs. ^ J i i • i reason to suppose that many or them by so doing secured for themselves the opportunity of studying it more carefully in their own camps and on their Masters' estates. By currents of air. Several of the Planters give it as iheir opinion that the disease was carried two or three miles by means of currents of air. I am inclined, however, to think that in most cases when such distances intervened, it had been spread by surreptitious intercourse between the estates.