382 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 



a State will then suffer losses which they richly deserve. We find it 

 necessary to have national laws to prevent the introduction of con- 

 tagious human diseases from foreign countries. Is it not equally 

 necessary that we have such a code of laws as will best protect the 

 animal property of all the people in this country to the same degree, 

 and not (as will be the invariable result, if we leave the States 

 to make their own laws) have such codes as to offer but incom- 

 plete protection to the people of any State ? The universal testi- 

 mony of all men who have busied themselves with the suppression 

 of contagious animal diseases is, that it is rendered doubly difficult 

 because of the ease with which owners can get rid of diseased or 

 suspected animals. Dealers are, in general, only too willing to take 

 advantage of such opportunities to get cheap bargains, and they are 

 equally regardless of the interests of the community in transporting 

 them. A man sick with a contagious disease gladly stays at home. 

 But if a person practicing as a veterinarian informs most owners of 

 the presence or the suspicion of a contagious disease among their ani- 

 mals, the owner's first endeavor is to get them off ; and experience 

 has proved that many of them care very little about the danger of 

 infection to which they subject the property of other men. This is 

 absolute testimony to the necessity of regulating the duties of em- 

 pirics and quacks in the practice of veterinary medicine, as well as 

 owners. The duties of graduates must naturally also be regulated 

 by law. With reference to the trustworthiness and public spirit 

 of owners, a most interesting example occurred in connection with 

 trichinosis in swine within a few weeks. 



A gentleman came to me one afternoon, and in a very bombas- 

 tic manner requested me to examine two pieces of pork. These 

 hogs had been fattened by himself, and, as he expressed it, were 

 " blooded Berkshires." It was, or is, his custom to fatten two each 

 year, and present pieces of " home-fed pork " to his friends at Christ- 

 mas. One piece was free, but the other was very badly trichinous. 

 On showing them to the gentleman upon a hot table attached to the 

 microscope, so that he could see the worms squirm about, he called 

 me a " swindler," and intimated that I had introduced them surrep- 

 titiously into the specimen. Convincing him of his error, however, 

 he somewhat recovered his temper, and remarked that he certainly 

 could not think of presenting such pork to his friends, and that some 

 would have to go without their present this year. " But there is no 

 law against my sending it to market, is there ? " To which I am 

 sorry I had to answer that there was not, nor could I prevent it ; 

 but that I thought the rendering establishment the best place for it. 



