PEEVENTION AND SUPPRESSION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES 153 



disinfected. It is also important for the horse-owner to recognize the 

 added risk which horses incur of contracting disease when they are affected 

 with cracked heels, abrasions of the lips, and generally any wound on the 

 surface which may give access to the infective matter of glanders, strangles, 

 tetanus, and other infectious diseases. 



Away from home, the horse is exposed to fresh dangers which can hardly 

 be averted. It may be true that the risks associated with public stables 

 and water-troughs are exaggerated, but there can be no doubt that some 

 risk has to be faced every time advantage is taken of such convenient 

 arrangements. 



In respect to horse-boxes on railways, complaints have been loud and 

 deep that no provisions have been made for proper cleansing and disinfec- 

 tion, and that in consequence a sound horse may be put into one from 

 which a diseased horse has just been taken. This may be done, but only 

 in defiance of the law which has been in operation for many years past, and 

 is generally enforced on all the railways in the country. The order pro- 

 vides that the floors of horse-boxes shall be thoroughly swept and scraped, 

 as also all other parts with which the droppings of any horse, ass, or mule 

 have come in contact. The sides of the horse-box and all other parts 

 thereof with which the head or any discharge from the mouth or nostrils 

 of any horse, ass, or mule has come in contact shall be thoroughly washed 

 with water by means of a sponge, brush, or other instrument. 



All the above-named steps are to be taken on every occasion after 

 a horse, ass, or mule is taken out of a horse-box and before any other horse, 

 ass, or mule, or any animal is placed therein. 



That the provisions for cleansing and disinfecting horse-boxes are not 

 universally appreciated may be gathered from the circumstance that com- 

 plaints have been made by hunting-men of the use of water in cleansing 

 horse-boxes on the ground that when a horse comes in from a run he wants 

 a dry, warm box rather than a damp one, which being admitted, it never- 

 theless follows that proper cleansing is not possible without the free use of 

 water. 



Suppression of infective diseases implies the adoption of measures 

 more or less stringent, according to the character of the disease. First in 

 order stands the so-called stamping-out system, which includes slaughter of 

 diseased and infected animals, or in place thereof perfect isolation, which 

 would be equally effective if it were not that it is almost impossible to 

 ensure it. In cases of disease which terminate fatally in the majority of 

 instances, slaughter does not imply any great sacrifice, but in other infec- 

 tive maladies which ordinarily end in recovery isolation would naturally be 

 substituted, and it may be here useful to suggest some of the precautions 



