THE LIVE-STOCK INTEREST. 327 



tiires to an alarming extent; so much so, that the public 

 health is already involved and henceforth it will require 

 stringent measures to protect the same. And unless Ave have 

 a competent veterinary inspector in every State, authorized 

 by the legislature, to examine all such diseased animals and 

 report the same to the proper authorities, there will soon be 

 no safety in the consumption of animal food. For every 

 year brings some new disease to light, which may perhaps 

 greatly afl'ect the public purse in the losses by death, as well 

 as deprive our tables of meat and milk, if not investigated 

 and controlled. All this important work must be done by 

 the veterinarian in behalf of science, for the majority of 

 medical men are seemingly above such practice. And yet 

 many of the diseases to which your physician may be called 

 might have been prevented were the principles of veterinary 

 science more generally understood. Hence, are there not 

 motives for every one of you to foster this important calling? 

 You may, individually, feel unconcerned about this matter, 

 but the public demand a change in the general system of 

 education, in order that this department of learning may not 

 longer be overlooked, either in a sanitary or financial point of 

 view. 



The farmers must be the pioneers in this great movement. 

 And as you control our immense live-stock traffic, you should 

 be the most interested in its welfare and in the healthful con- 

 dition of all those creatures especially, that are intended for 

 our animal sustenance. The live-stock interest of our 

 country, therefore, demands our aid for self-protection in 

 time of need. And thus for our mutual benefit we hope for 

 encouragement and success in this new province of investi- 

 gation, which cannot foil to interest our intelligent people 

 when they fully comprehend its utility, and thus see its 

 relations to human happiness and prosperity. 



It therefore behooves us in behalf of American agriculture 

 and the interests of the public health, to call the attention of 

 our people to the amount of diseased meat which is wilfully 

 bought and sold in many of our large city markets. During 

 the prevalence of pleuro-pneumonia in New Jersey, last 

 winter, more than five hundred sick creatures were slaughtered 

 and sold for human food. So great was this traffic in "cheap 



