176 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



at the lowest estimate at $125, amounts to $37,500. The same 

 amount to replace those destroyed makes $75,000. Add to this the 

 loss by food, labor, the danger of infection to other horses, the costs 

 of cleansing and disinfection, and $100,000 would not cover the loss 

 to the company. In spite of all this, these companies still continue 

 to employ as veterinary advisers men entirely ignorant of the phe- 

 nomena of this disease, or, if they know them, men who are false 

 to their duties to the public, by persisting in treating animals 

 they refuse to condemn even with the most manifest symptoms of 

 glanders. 



" Still at times an animal is recognized by one of these practi- 

 tioners, but the symptoms are of a mild type, the animal is in good 

 health and condition, it represents a certain sum of money : he al- 

 lows it to be sold to some low dealer (if he does not recommend it), 

 or perhaps to some countryman. In the first case the horse goes to 

 some horse-market, and is sold again to some poor but licensed 

 vender, cartman, or cheap livery-stable keeper, unless it happens to 

 be seized by an agent of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 

 to Animals, who has it destroyed upon my certificate. In the sec- 

 ond case the animal is taken across the river to Long Island or New 

 Jersey, spreading the seeds of this loathsome disease wherever it 

 goes. In the face of such evidence as this is it not high time that 

 either our State authorities, or those in Washington, paid more atten- 

 tion to the contagious diseases of animals, and enacted laws for the 

 protection of our animal property, as well as human beings, from 

 infection? Is it not high time that American veterinarians used 

 their influence toward the establishment of a general sanitary vet- 

 erinary system for the country, with its appropriate head in connec- 

 tion with the National Board of Health at Washington, looking 

 toward the suppression and prevention of these damaging animal 

 pests ? " 



Dr. Gadsden writes from Philadelphia thus : 



" Dear Sir : In answer to your inquiry respecting the preva- 

 lence of glanders in this city and State, I am glad to inform you that 

 disease is seldom met with now in this city. I can not answer for 

 the State, but no doubt there are many cases that do not come under 

 my notice. 



" I need not tell you that I have them destroyed as soon as pos- 

 sible after examination. During the twelve years I have been in 

 practice in this city, I think it is safe for me to say I have con- 

 demned two hundred (200) horses with this loathsome disease and 



