The very first shed in which the plague must have appeared in London is a pattern of cleanliness, and the stock was magnificent, as proved by the animals in a shed to which the disease has not been propagated. Almost simultaneously the malady broke out in the Essex marshes, and in every instance we trace a more or less direct contamination by foreign stock.
On the 28th of August about thirty of the members of the Congress accepted an invitation to visit the renowned agricultural establishment at Altenburg, in Hungary. After the visitors had inspected the herds and other appurtenances of this institution, Professor Maasch, its director, intimated that the Rinderpest had appeared at Nickolsdorf, about four German miles from Altenburg. The President of the Congress had known this fact before the party left Vienna for Hungary; but as he feared some enthusiasts would first see the plague, and then inspect the Altenburg herds, he preferred to adopt the stratagem of communicating the information through Professor Maasch, after the great Agricultural College of Hungary had been viewed. Nickolsdorf, where the steppe murrain appeared on the 10th of August, is an exquisitely clean village, with well-whitewashed buildings and broad roads, constituting the centre of a thriving agricultural district. Its people are typical Hungarians, not too anxious to work, and, on the whole, poor; but they are intelligent, notwithstanding the national proclivity to farm a thousand acres badly rather than one-fourth the quantity to perfection. Their wants are not great, and their worldly luxuries, beyond potatoes and schnaps, are bought with the profits made on large herds of cattle. One herd only had suffered from the cattle plague when we visited the village. This herd consisted of 1225 animals, divided into three lots. The affected portion numbered 450 animals--bullocks intended for work and slaughter--varying in age from three to seven years. The cows and heifers had not been smitten. The 450 animals amongst which the disease appeared were housed in no less than sixteen different sheds in Nickolsdorf. Out of each of these places sick animals had been taken, and either slaughtered or permitted to die. We killed four for dissection on the 29th. Six more had been previously killed, their hides slacked, and the entire body buried; nine had died, and two we left in life to be soon slaughtered and disposed of as the others. The district veterinary surgeon in constant attendance was an extremely active and intelligent man, who recognised the disease on its first outbreak, and adopted such measures for separation, destruction, and burial, as prevented the disease from spreading so rapidly as it has in England.