324 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1080 



than did the trolley cars and bicycles. 

 Aside from his use as a beast of burden, the 

 horse will still be indispensable in safe- 

 guarding human lives by the production of 

 serums and antitoxins. Within our own 

 generation there was a time when the price 

 of farm products sank almost to the vanish- 

 ing point. In some of the northwestern 

 states, it was reported, horses could not be 

 given away and many were turned loose 

 upon the plains and mountain-sides to gain 

 what sustenance they could. This was not 

 far from the period when the automobile 

 first began to attract notice, and although 

 the automobiles have shown a phenomenal 

 increase in number, the census returns 

 show, also, a marked increase in the num- 

 ber of horses and a still greater increase in 

 their value. The demand for horses from 

 this country in connection with the Eu- 

 ropean war will serve to stimulate their 

 production, and for a period after the war 

 we may expect a further demand in order 

 to restock the countries that are now being 

 devastated. With his master the horse has 

 taken an important part in war and the 

 conquest of nations. Like his master he is 

 subject to death and fearful injury. It is 

 therefore no more than an act of justice 

 that in the present war an organization 

 known as the blue cross has been effected 

 for the purpose of aiding wounded horses. 

 Above all is humaneness. This quality 

 needs cultivation in time of peace as well 

 as war and veterinarians will do well to 

 consider it not only in their own practise, 

 but by showing a sympathetic interest and 

 activity in local humane societies. 



While the civilized world has shuddered 

 at the horrors of the trenches of the Eu- 

 ropean warfare, there has been a tragedy 

 of the trenches in our own country which, 

 although not seriously involving human 

 life, has nevertheless caused great hard- 



ship and paralyzed agricultural pursuits 

 in certain localities. 



The lives of thousands of our domes- 

 ticated animals have been sacrificed, threat- 

 ening more or less seriously our food and 

 milk supply. This foreign invasion of an 

 insidious infectious disease has necessitated 

 the expenditure of a vast amount of money 

 and has invoked the highest skill and 

 strategy of the veterinary profession to ex- 

 terminate an enemy so fatal to our re- 

 sources. 



Although the trenches have been filled 

 and the green sod of the pasture marks 

 the lasting resting-place of the many vic- 

 tims of the foot and mouth disease, there 

 remains an aftermath of bitterness on the 

 part of many stockmen and others who 

 have suffered loss from the ravages of the 

 disease and the restrictions imposed by the 

 quarantine. This bitterness has been di- 

 rected largely toward the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, because of delay in diagnosis and 

 quarantine restrictions. The sentiment of 

 hostility has been crystallized in a resolu- 

 tion adopted by the National Society of 

 Kecord Associations representing thirty- 

 four pure-bred-stock breeder's associations 

 with a combined membership of 110,000 

 breeders of pure-bred live stock in the 

 United States. 



This resolution puts the association "on 

 record as favoring and strenuously urging 

 that the live-stock interests ... be repre- 

 sented in an official capacity in the United 

 States Department of Agriculture by an as- 

 sistant Secretary of Agriculture who shall 

 be a practical stockman, and not a scien- 

 tist by profession, such officer to be the 

 ranking officer in immediate charge of the 

 live-stock interests and sanitary regulations 

 administered by the Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry. ' ' 



A second resolution "urges the adoption 

 of state and national legislation providing 



