BY DR. OSCAR KATZ. 435 



and encourage protective inoculation for pleuro-pneumonia ; while 

 on the other side, by analysing its proper nature, we cannot admit 

 of its being free from objections. These are partly, as has been 

 shown in the foregoing lines, of a serious character, and thus by no 

 means compatible with the verdict given by that majority. But I 

 repeat distinctly that the objections raised relate to the protective 

 arrangement such as it is found to exist at present. One thing is 

 clear. The prophylactic measures employed in one country against 

 the invasion of animal-plagues need not necessai'ily be the same in 

 others, and what may be the case with the treatment of bovine 

 pleuro-pneumonia in one part of the earth, need not hold good for 

 that adopted in another one. Countries in which the disease is 

 little prevalent, the relative number of cattle inconsidei^able or at 

 least where large herds do not exist, and where, I may add, the 

 means of communication, as for instance railway traffic, are well- 

 developed, may reasonably arrest the spread of the disorder by the 

 " stamping-oiit system," and subsequent sanitary measures. But 

 to adopt this system in Australia would be absurd, nor could or 

 would its most tenacious defender recommend its being applied here, 

 as things now are. It has been tried in Australia, with what success 

 you may perceive by looking at the prevalence of the plague for 

 the last years. If at present such a system was adopted here, 

 which means not only the destruction of the infected individuals, 

 but also a wholesale slaughter of all those which have been exposed 

 to these, it would be equivalent to the loss of half the present 

 stock of cattle. 



Even then the measure would turn out to be utterly futile, 

 unless the whole of the Continent acted in a uniform manner, and 

 then again thei^e will be no full guarantee of success until the 

 origin and spread of the disease is traced beyond every doubt. At 

 all events the colony of Queensland has done well by admitting 

 that a reform in the way of px'otective means against lung-plague 

 of cattle is absolutely necessary, and it is also easily understood 

 that, as a preventive treatment by means of a rational inoculation 

 seems to promise good results, the principal attention has been 

 directed to this point. 



