64 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



have the satisfaction at least of knowing that the animal and its contagion 

 have been put out of the way for ever, and is therefore incapable of doing 

 harm. 



Of the horses attacked in the British army sixty-four per cent have 

 already been killed. Why, we should like to know, has it been found 

 necessary to destroy all these animals? The only interpretation which 

 can be put upon the action of the army authorities is that of stamping 

 out the disease, and so far as we can see it is the only rational course 

 open to them. It is quite understood that others in their charge suffering 

 from the disease still i-emain alive, and it is to be hoped that these will 

 sooner or later be dealt with in the same manner. To count on its being 

 recognized early enough, or being treated with that laboratory exactness, 

 when discovered, which Captain Martin lays down as necessary, is placing 

 far too much confidence in both the horse-owning public and the veterinary 

 surgeon. 



Principally the disease is, at the present time, in our military hospitals, 

 and if it is not intended to allow it to escape, every horse now suffering 

 from it should be destroyed. Epizootic lymphangitis is contagious, and 

 although not immediately destructive, it is nevertheless dangerous by 

 virtue of its long-continued and crippling effects, and every effort should 

 be put forward to stamp it out while it is confined within a narrow 

 area. 



The serious aspect of the disease has led the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries to include it with the contagious affections against the spread 

 of which their efforts are chiefly directed, and an Order which came into 

 operation on the 6th of April, 1904, and drawn very much on the lines of 

 that of glanders, has made it compulsory on the part of any person possess- 

 ing an animal so affected to give notice of it to the police, " when a local 

 Authority, on being satisfied by an inquiry under the preceding article of 

 the existence of epizootic lymphangitis, shall forthwith take such steps as 

 may be practicable to secure the isolation of any horse affected with or 

 suspected of that disease, and for thnt purpose an inspector of a local 

 Authority may serve a notice in writing ... on the owner or person in 

 charge of any horse, requiring that such horse be detained on or in any 

 field, yard, stable, shed, or other place specified in the notice, and after 

 the service of such notice it shall not be lawful for any person to move 

 such horse from or out of such place of detention, or to permit any other 

 horse to come in contact with any horse to which the notice applies, or 

 to remove from or out of such place any carcase of a horse or any dung, 

 fodder, litter, or other thing that has been in contact with any horse to 

 which the notice applies." 



