VALUE OF VETERINARY SCIENCE. 211 



There is a disease of young cattle, formerly supposed to 

 be ao anthrax, — now knoun as symptomatic anthrax scientifi- 

 cally, and commonly as "black leg" and "black quarter," 

 — in which French veterinarians have successfully employed 

 inoculation to protect the young creatures which are sus- 

 ceptible to its attacks. Inoculation has been tried with 

 contagious pleuro-pneuraonia and rinderpest; but the wis- 

 dom of resorting to it in these diseases is questionable, as it 

 seems wiser to stamp them out than to perpetuate them. 



In Euirland the resjulation of contasrious animal diseases 

 has been left to the Privy Council by Act of Parliament. 

 They can issue the necessary orders for suppression in case 

 of outbreak among the live stock of the kingdom, and these 

 orders are carried out by their ofiicers and the police. The 

 veterinary department of the Privy Council was not or- 

 ganized until 1865, when rinderpest threatened the cattle 

 of Great Britain with destruction. It was decided that 

 " stamping out" was the most effectnal way of dealing with 

 the pest. By stamping out a contagious disease is meant 

 the slaughter of infected and exposed animals, and is the 

 most eflectual way of dealing with rinderpest and contagious 

 pleuro-pneumouia. AVhen this means is resorted to the 

 work should be thorough, and the owners should be reim- 

 bursed by the government for the loss they sustain. 



Rinderpest was brought to England in 1865 (there had 

 been outbreaks in the last century, but the disease had dis- 

 appeared) and raged for two years. It was eradicated in 

 1867. Since that time there have been a few outbreaks, the 

 result of importing diseased cattle, but they were speedily 

 suppressed, as the regulations bearing on the disease are 

 very efficient. The afi'ected and exposed animals are killed 

 and buried in an out-of-the-way place, — or, better still, 

 burned, — stables disinfected and kept empty for awhile, and 

 this ends the trouble. 



Dr. Fleming, in his " Veterinary'' Science and Police," es- 

 timates the loss from rinderpest in Great Britain between 

 18()5 and 1867, at eight million pounds sterling. 



Contagious pleuro-pneumonia and foot-and-mouth disease 

 have both existed in England since 1839, and have occa- 

 sioned almost incalculable losses. If the ffoverument would 



