UNUSUAL CASE OF CHRONIC RINDERPEST.                   365

Public Cattle establishment (in Madras) during the current year "; there are a few
more reports of the occurrence of rinderpest in camels available in the evidence
collected by the Indian Cattle Plagues Commission [1871]. Pease [1894]
states :—" The camel also suffers very severely from the disease, it being very fatal
in him; numerous instances of the disease in this animal have been cited by various
authorities, and some have come under my own personal observation ". Recently
Haji [ 1932 ] has described several natural outbreaks of the disease amongst camels,
which were brought to his notice by Veterinary Assistant Surgeons working in parts
of Sind and Karachi. The susceptibility of this animal to rinderpest was proved
experimentally by Lingard and Cross, although Leese and Rayment stated that they
never encountered any case in their experience with camels.

                               "CARRIERS" AMONGST CATTLE.

Cattle are known to be highly infective during the stage marked by acute fever
and during early clinical symptoms. Such sick animals may spread the infection
locally if not segregated, but the spread of the infection over long distances by such
visibly sick animals is not likely as they would scarcely be used for transport pur-
poses. There is danger, however, from animals which run through a symptomless
form of the disease, as the following evidence from past and present workers would
strongly suggest.

As far back as 1866, Thacker prepared a simple narrative on Cattle Diseases for
the guidence of ryots of Madras, in which mention is made of the several ways in
which rinderpest is propagated and carried about. Among other things, he
states:—

      " On one occasion, when sickness had broken out in a herd of cattle, I
            advised the owner to remove the healthy animals. One of these was
            sent about 15 miles away, and unfortunately put in a herd of 120,
            all in apparent health. Within a fortnight 70 were attacked with
            Murrain. The disease was thus communicated by this cow carrying in
            some way the infection about her, though she herself was never sick ".

This would appear to be the earliest recorded case of a " carrier " bovine and
this valuable reference has been overlooked by all authors who have interested
themselves with the problem of " Carriers ". To quote Lingard [1903]: " It is
well known that an animal may in this country be attacked with so slight a form
of rinderpest that it may even be overlooked by the initiated in this disease ".
In Stockman's [1905] words, " the disease smoulders on in a densely stocked loca-
tion owing to the occurrence of mild cases amongst the partially resistant animals,
which pass unobserved. These and the chronic bowel cases (infectivity up to 30