CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 127 



ordered by the chief or departmeutal veteriuariau, thereby securiug" at 

 ouce the guarantee of a diagnosis by more than one expert and saving 

 the local veterinarian from the unpleasant duty of ordering a work that 

 maybe unacceptable to his regular employer. 



Xot the least important duty of the local veterinarian is in connection 

 with the mutual assurance of animals against deaths from sporadic dis 

 eases. Losses from epizootics are iudemnifted by the state, but losses 

 from diseases that are not communicable justly become a tax on the 

 stock owners of the municipality or district. Such an arrangement en- 

 gages the interest of the stock owners not only to report the contagious 

 diseases early, but the non-contagious as well, and to use all resources 

 of science for the cure of the latter, but much more for their prevention. 

 The local veterinarian as a regular officer of such societies, directing, 

 supervising, inspecting, finds his interest consulted in urging all that 

 can conduce to health in breeding, management, and treatment, and 

 wherever such associations have been introduced there has been a nota- 

 ble improvement in all that pertains to the quality and numbers of the 

 live stock. 



The local veterinarian, being an essential part of the national veteri- 

 nary sanitary service, it should not be in the power of the local authority 

 to discontinue his services, nor to api)oint to the position any one but 

 a competent veterinarian (a graduate). 



After discussion mainly of the right of the sanitary veterinarian to 

 engage in ordinary practice, and of the desirability of specifying two 

 classes of veterinary officials, the following was adopted by a large ma- 

 jority : 



2. That the veterinary sanitary service should utilize the greatest possible number of 

 veterinarians. It embraces the inspection of fairs and markets of animals, of meats of 

 the butchery and abattoir, the control of rendering works, the inspection of breeding 

 animals, the supervision or direction of mutual assurance societies against the mor- 

 tality of beasts, the revision of the census of domestic animals ; * * » it conipi'e- 

 hends the service of the state and may become international, embracing especiallT 

 the repression and prevention of contagious maladies and epizootics, also the coutro 

 of all other veterinary service. 



THIRD RESOLUTION. 



In support of the third resolution Zundel advanced that contagious 

 maladies are no longer recognized as of spontaneous origin ; that day 

 by day the advocates of spontaniety yield the point, and that well-ob- 

 served facts prove that it is by contagion that these maladies are at 

 once propagated and perjietuated. To prevent the propagation of these 

 maladies it is necessary to have in all countries enjoying an interna, 

 tional commerce in live stock a common, permanent, and efficient sys- 

 tem of preventing or at least of arresting them in their inception. The 

 value of an international arrangement for the control of llinderpest has 

 long been recognized and becomes yearly more imjjortant. The demands 

 of Western Europe for a meat sup]>ly are constantly increasing, while 



