No. 1. DEf ARTMENt OF AG-RIcrLTURE. 135 



beneficial influences for the protection and betterment of animal 

 husbandry. 



Quite recently a change of sentiment has become apparent and 

 veterinary work is beginning to have public recognition. It is now 

 time to make known the advantages that will accrue to the state 

 from the proper development of veterinary rsearch, veterinary edu- 

 cation and veterinary administration. The limited public veterinary 

 work that has been authorized, has proved its value and serves as a 

 strong argument for further development. 



It is probable that in the more civilized countries, great outbreaks 

 of rinderpest, foot-and-mouth disease, contagious pleuropneumonia, 

 etc., etc., are as unlikely to occur as are great outbreaks of the 

 plague or cholera under our modern conditions. New conditions 

 develop or, at any rate, encourage new diseases. The destructive 

 infectious diseases of today are more chronic and more widely dis- 

 tributed than the great plagues of former times. The diseases of 

 today destroy more animals, but the victims are scattered. Instead 

 of destroying half of the cattle within a limited area, they may 

 destroy 5 per cent, of the cattle in a district a hundred times as 

 great, or, the victims may be gravely injured and rendered unprofit- 

 able but not killed. Animal plagues in these days are not so ex- 

 plosive as they are erosive. Tuberculosis, abortion, and calf cholera 

 were never before so prevalent as they are today. On account of 

 their insiduous nature they do not cause the alarm, but they do 

 cause as much loss as some of the more spectacular and rapidly 

 spreading maladies. Besides this, there are the various infectious 

 diseases of horses: glanders, infectious pneumonia, influenza, 

 strangles, tetanus, purpura h<emorrhagica, also various forage pois- 

 onings, and osteoporosis. In addition, there are numerous infec- 

 tious and parasitic diseases of other animals and there are import- 

 ant veterinary problems in connection with breeding and animal 

 production, all of which require elucidation. The veterinarian is 

 not only a physican for animals — he is an animal engineer. More- 

 over, the work of the veterinarian is of importance with relation to 

 the supervision of the production of foods of animal origin. 



I have referred only to such veterinary work as is of immediate 

 public importance, but surely it is also of importance that owners of 

 valuable animals may be able to obtain the services of skilled men 

 to furnish advice as to the prevention of disease and to treat ailing 

 animals, so that, so far as possible, their sufferings may be relieved 

 and they may be restored to usefulness. 



It is necessary only to turn to the experiences of other countries 

 to learn that a large part of our great and continuing losses from 

 animal diseases is avoidable, and is a result of neglect. 



The Veterinary development of Denmark furnishes a very instruc- 

 tive lesson. Denmark is a small bleak country, and a generation ago 

 it found itself stripped of its fairest province, impoverished by war 

 and confronted by changed economic conditions that made it im- 

 possible for it to continue the kind of husbandry (grain production) 

 that had formerly sustained it. The indomitable will and resource- 

 fulness of the people brought about a complete shange in the agri- 

 cultural conditions, under which dairying became the chief industry. 

 This brought into great prominence the importance of animal 



