Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 77 



imported with such animals, the clothing of their attendants, 

 and the clothing of all emigrants who have had to do with 

 susceptible animals. 



4th. In place of absolute proMMtion, as called for in No. 

 1, susceptible animals must be imported under careful re- 

 strictions, including a quarantine after arrival for a period 

 equal to the longest known incubation of the plague which 

 it is desired to exclude. 



5th. Prohibit the importation of baled hay, straw, or other 

 farm product, in the preparation or removal of which the 

 domestic animals are usually employed, or which is usually 

 stored in buildings beside the dwellings of such animals. 



These headings are only given as illustrative of the gen- 

 eral principles which must be carried out in such cases. In 

 putting them in practice they must be elaborated materially 

 in various directions. But in thus elaborating and adminis- 

 tering them no laxity and no exceptions must be admitted. 

 In many of the concerns of life a blunder or neglect results 

 in an immediate loss, the extent of which can be at once seen 

 and the after-effects of which are nil. But in dealing with 

 the invisible but unspeakably prolific bacteria of animal 

 plagues, a blunder is quite likely to prove fatal, and anything 

 like laxity is almost of necessity the road to failure and ruin. 

 It is in this respect that the man of business usually fails. 

 The dealer demands that live stock shall be examined at a 

 particular point and a certificate of health shall be given if 

 no disease is discovered. The magistrate carries out the law 

 in (what he calls) its spirit {^), ignoring its letter, and undoes 

 everytliing which it was designed to effect. The legislator 

 insists that his constituent and supporter has selected his 

 stock with extreme care, and that there can be no danger in 

 making the quarantine merely nominal in his particular case. 

 The city magnate finding that his animals from an infected 

 locality cannot be admitted to a public sale, makes a ficti- 

 tious sale to some one outside in order that his stock may 



