circular to the foreign missions at vienna, March 6, 1879

circular to the foreign missions at vienna.

Among the measures adopted by Austria-Hungary against the danger of the invasion of the pest appears equally the disinfection of letters and transmissions by post, coming from the infected provinces of Russia.

The ordinance of the minister of commerce at Vienna of the 28th of last month regulates this question.

The disinfection with which the post-office at the frontier at Podwoloczyska and at Szakowa are charged is made in the following manner:

The letters will not be opened, however, as the seals, if of Wax, will suffer by this proceeding whether by being softened or effaced; the said offices will apply to the letters before the disinfection gummed vignettes with the insignia of the government in order to secure the inviolability of the fastening. The vignettes offer the same advantages as wafers, since they do not suffer or detach by reason of the heat and the evaporation of carbolic acid.

For disinfecting completely single letters, that is to say such as have but half an inch thickness (1 cent. 3.2 mm.), it is necessary to expose them in the apparatus for three hours to the increasing effects of heat. The letters of greater thickness are subjected to this proceeding during four hours, which may sometimes cause a delay in their dispatch.

The regulation of 1837 which was in force until now in Austria-Hungary required for the correspondence of the foreign missions at Vienna the disinfection by means of simple fumigation. The experiments made since by science have demonstrated the insufficiency of this means, and intense heating as the only proper proceeding to obtain a radical disinfection.

The imperial and royal government could therefore not hesitate in causing to be applied equally to the correspondence of the foreign missions at Vienna, and to that which might be destined for transit through Austria-Hungary to foreign governments, the process of heating, and to cause the fastening of the letters to be assured by the official vignettes in question.

However, in order to increase the precautions taken by the post administration, it would be well that the said correspondence from the provinces of Russia should be closed exclusively by means of wafers and of gummed vignettes, and that in the interest of a prompt dispatch the packages of letters should not exceed half an inch in thickness, as is stated above.

The imperial and royal ministry for foreign affairs hasten to inform the missions of these measures, adopted in the common interest, and has the honor to request that the government may be advised of the same.