I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient
servant,
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[Translation.]
Monsieur le Gouverneur: I have made known
to yon, by my circular of the 3d March, the progress of the cattle
plague in the countries which it has invaded, about the middle of
last year, up to the 17th February, at which date the number were
reported which I have communicated.
|
Sick. |
Died. |
Cured. |
| In England |
166,379 |
124,724 |
21,092 |
| In Holland |
40,292 |
22,250 |
14,930 |
Since that time those numbers have increased largely. In fact, on the
26th of May last, we observe—
|
Sick. |
Died. |
Cured. |
| In England |
244,455 |
200,905 |
32,283 |
| In Holland |
57,480 |
33,423 |
23,175 |
In those two countries the cattle plague from this date has begun to
decrease considerably.
The number of the sick which were on the 17th February in England,
13,000 per week, and more than 2,000 in Holland, have decreased
regularly since that time; so that during the last week of the 26th
of May there were only 1,207 cases in the United Kingdom, and only
371 in Holland.
Although that reduction may be attributed in part to the influence of
summer, during which season contagious typhus always diminishes, it
is most likely owing to the sanitary measures which have been taken
in the two countries to isolate and to extinguish the centers of
contagion. It is to be hoped that the constant application of those
measures will completely destroy the cattle plague, and deliver us
also from the dangers which we can only stop by our vigilance.
You know, Monsieur le Gouverneur, that at the end of last year the
plague had appeared in 46 communes of six of our provinces, and had
made 454 victims—that is to say, 20 died, 286 diseased, and 148
suspected were slaughtered. Since that period it has appeared anew
[Page 67]
in 29 communes of four
of our provinces which it had already visited, and also in a commune
of the province of Liége, where it has not been seen until now.
There it occasioned the loss of 320 animals, among which 6 died, and
125 diseased and 188 suspected were slaughtered. The number of the
victims to the disease since its commencement, at the end of month
of August, 1865, were in our country 174, including 26 died, and 412
diseased and 336 suspected slaughtered.
It is in the communes of Waerschoot and of Cruybeke, of East
Flanders, also in that of Hensy, of the province of Liége, that the
last cases of the plague have manifested themselves, a few day ago.
It is not impossible that some isolated cases may still appear in
those localities and others. Those fears are only too much justified
by the experience of the past; they must make us persist in the
measures of precaution and vigilance which have enabled us to escape
until now, at the cost of not very onerous sacrifices the ravages of
a pestilence whose victims are counted elsewhere by thousands.
ALP. VAN DEUPEEREBOOM, Minister of the
Interior.
