PREFACE. 



For very many years the subject of 'Animal Plagues ' has occupied 

 a large share of my attention during the hours spared from more press- 

 ing every-day professional duties, and no opportunity of adding to a 

 knowledge of it has been allowed to pass. Since 1865, when this 

 country was much harassed and ravaged by a destructive exotic disease, 

 its importance has greatly increased, and public attention has been 

 much occupied by it. Previous to that year, the maladies of the lower 

 animals^ and particularly those of a contagious or spreading character, 

 had received but little if any notice, save among a few members of 

 the veterinary profession, who vainly attempted to point out their 

 dangerous tendencies, and their baneful effects on the agriculture of 

 the country, as well as their amenableness to legislative measures care- 

 fully carried out. The striking facts elucidated in this respect in 1865 

 and 1866, have corroborated, in every particular, the justness and value 

 of these unheeded indications. It is scarcely necessary to say, that had 

 the history of the malady then raging been better known, serious loss 

 and embarrassment might have been avoided, and more credit would 

 have been due to us as an enlightened people. 



The science of Comparative Pathology has made but little progress 

 in this country; it has not been looked upon with much favour by the 

 medical profession, and has been neglected altogether b}' successive 



