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6
two months since, the total number of cows did not exceed 50. Before
the cattle plague made its appearance in London, the number of cows in
this district was about 400.
The rinderpest, in its progress, appears to have been governed by the
same law which prevails in the rise, progress, and decline, of the epidemics
which affect the human race.
This disease appears to have attained its culminating point about the
latter end of February. The number of cases increased week by week, up
to the week ending on February 17th, when the number of attacks reported
to the Privy Council was 13,001, since then, the disease has gradually declined,
and we may expect that in the course of a few months it will
disappear, or the cases will become so few as not to attract much attention.
The poison which produces epidemics seems, after a time, to lose its
virulence, and, as I stated publicly in October last, the last regulation
issued to arrest the diffusion of the poison, and the latest remedy suggested
for the cure of the disease, would obtain undeserved credit, when the abatement
of its virulence might more properly be ascribed to its diminished
powers of affecting the bodies of animals. Medical science has not as yet
discovered a medicine for the cure of any epidemic disease, and the attempts
to cure the rinderpest by the use of any specific remedy, will end in disappointment.
Since my last Quarterly Eeport, another water-waste preventer has
been erected. There are now 15 in operation in the district.