A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. 377 



ress. It breaks loose in a night ; ay, in an hour ; and, like a demon 

 incarnate, it frequently sweeps the bovine family before it. Russia 

 loses millions every year from it. Germany scarcely passes free 

 from its ravages for any single year, though, they are at present 

 very quickly stamped out. In 1878 she lost 2,560 cattle, having a 

 value of about half a million dollars. England lost some twenty-five 

 million dollars' worth of cattle in the last great invasion which she 

 suffered in 1865, 1866, and 1867. 



We have in this country the " Texas disease " of cattle, the real 

 nature or causes of which we at present know very little about. It 

 produces no inconsiderable loss each year, however, and the States, 

 the frontiers of which border on lands where this disease seems to be 

 domesticated, have been obliged to make laws regulating the traffic 

 in cattle. The Agricultural Commissioner pretends to give some 

 statistics with reference to the losses the people suffer from swine- 

 plague. In 1876 it was reported that the loss from this disease 

 alone amounted to some $20,000,000. The report for 1878 gives 

 $30,000,000 as the amount of loss to the country from all conta- 

 gious animal diseases. These are estimates — nothing more. It is 

 absolutely impossible to gain any reliable statistics in a country 

 where there is no system of veterinary laws or an efficient veteri- 

 nary police. The value of reliable statistics, with reference to the 

 extension of contagious disease among our animals, can not be over- 

 estimated. Until we have them, it will be useless to hope for much 

 conformable legislation. Every observing citizen must at once per- 

 ceive the immense tax which these diseases impose upon the nation. 



It is highly probable that, were the real facts known, their rav- 

 ages have cost the people more in the last hundred years of our ex- 

 istence than our national debt amounts to. 



Every one should know that, if not absolutely preventable, yet it 

 is possible for a competent veterinary police to reduce these losses to 

 a very low minimum. 



Germany, with its efficient code of laws and veterinary police, is 

 continually proving this ; while Britain and ourselves as frequently 

 give proof of the incapacity of our respective Governments in this 

 regard. 



No prevention can be hoped for until we have the necessary 

 implements to work with. These implements are a national code 

 of police laws, corresponding to the results obtained by modern sci- 

 entific investigation, and an efficient body of educated veterinari- 

 ans to execute them. With reference to the latter, men of very 

 ordinary education can do the " pole-axe " business ; the graduates 



