Report on the catlle plague, or rinderpest : presented to the three national agricultural societies of England, Scotland, and Ireland / by James Beart Simonds.

  • Simonds, James B. (James Beart), 1810-1904.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the catlle plague, or rinderpest : presented to the three national agricultural societies of England, Scotland, and Ireland / by James Beart Simonds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    No cattle intended for the English market are brought into Hamburg by the ships from Tonning or the other ports on the coast of Denmark, but they go direct from thence to England ; nor are many conveyed there for this purpose by means of the navigation of the Elbe from Central Germany. The Order in Council, at the time of our visit in April, did not appear to be understood by the exporters of cattle as to the intention of the Government with regard to this port; and they refrained at first from shipping cattle, although Ham- burg was not named in the prohibition, for fear lest on their arrival in England, they should be seized by the Com- missioners of Customs. We were informed by Colonel Hodges, Consul-General at Hamburg, that a similar doubt existed with regard to hides, and, further^ that the order would be inoperative for good, presuming that the seeds of a contagious disease could be conveyed by these articles of commerce so long as Hamburg, as the port of the Elbe, and Bremen, as the port of the Weser, were left open, as large quantities of these commo- dities come down those rivers. The hides are collected from out of various countries, and it is impossible to trace them to their original source. The merchants of Hamburg, however, continued to export hides, first making a declara- tion before the Consul that they did not come from Liibeck or any of the Baltic ports. The Consul upon this certified that such declaration had been made, and thus left our Com- missioners of Customs to deal with the question as they might see fit. Siiould the necessity unfortunately arise to prohibit the importation of cattle, hides, hoofs, &c., from the fear of introducing a contagious disease, such as the rinder- pest, then not only must Bremen and Hamburg be named in the order, but Tonning also, as the port of the Eider, as this place has direct water communication with the port of Kiel on the Baltic, from which place hides, hoofs, &c., can readily be conveyed. Little fear, however, need be entertained of the introduc- tion of the disease from Denmark by means of any cattle which she might receive from the Baltic ports. The diffi- culties in the way of a direct trade of this kind are too great for it to be carried on with facility or advantage. Such cattle would have to make the port of Kiel, and be then dis- embarked, in order to be placed on the vessels navigating the canal which connects Kiel with the Eider, and on reach- ing Tonning, be again re-embarked on vessels bound for England.