GOVERNMENTAL SERVICES 145 



wherever there is any ground for his decision.^*' 

 Nevertheless, cases have occurred in which courts 

 have seen fit to review and reverse the decision of 

 health authorities relative to infectious diseases 

 in animals.^ ^ 



Inasmuch as infectious diseases are the result 

 of the action of specific germs, either bacterial or 

 protozoal, where those germs have been definitely 

 identified by microscopic examination, the sure 

 method of diagnosis is by such examination. It 

 has therefore been held that a city has, under its 

 general powers, the authority to appoint a bac- 

 teriologist; and that such office or employment is 

 not an interference with the work of the regular 

 health official, but an aid in this work.^^ "While, 

 then, a court may not generally interfere with the 

 diagnosis of an official veterinarian, it might very 

 properly set aside a diagnosis which was evidently 

 not made in accord with the present state of 

 scientific knowledge. The cause of glanders is 

 the Bacillus mallei, which is well known. It is 

 not unlikely that where a veterinarian has neg- 

 lected to verify his diagnosis by means of a bac- 

 terial examination or blood test the court might 

 properly question his diagnosis. If, therefore, 

 the veterinarian orders a horse killed for that dis- 

 ease he should make and preserve microscopic 

 slides showing the Bacillus mallei taken from that 



30 Kennedy v. Board of Ho v. Williamson, 103 Fed. 10. 

 Health, 2 Pa, 366 ; Brown v. 3i Miller v. Horton, 152 Mass. 

 Purdy, 8 N. Y. 143; In re 540; Lowe v. Conroy, 120 Wis. 

 Kaiahua, 19 Ha. 218; Thomas 151, 97 N. W. 942. 

 V. Ingham Co. Supervisors, 142 32 State ex rel. Shell v. Dun- 

 Mich. 319; Browne v. Living- can, 162 Ala. 196, 50 So. 265. 

 ston Co., 126 Mich. 276; Jew 



