STATE HYGIENE 471 



hensive laws could at once be framed to cover years of 

 neglect, and as time rolled by successive Acts have appeared, 

 improving upon former methods, and rendering prevention 

 and suppression more complete. It is, however, astonishing 

 to find that after the bitter years of 1865-66 any Govern- 

 ment could be found permitting foreign cattle to be again 

 admitted from infected countries, but such was the case, 

 and foot and mouth disease (which the cattle plague regula- 

 tions had nearly abolished) and cattle plague were both 

 again introduced into the country ! 



The further history of legislation it is unnecessary to 

 follow ; our object in briefly reviewing the past is to show 

 how it explains the present, and to indicate what should be 

 the action in future. 



Local Authorities, Permissive Legislation, and Lay In- 

 spectors. — In all the Acts directed against disease up to 

 date, the most serious blot made in their construction is 

 placing their administration in the hands of the local 

 instead of the central authority. It is not the slightest use 

 drawing up stringent regulations and placing them in the 

 hands of people to administer who are opposed to legislative 

 interference, and do not understand the value of the 

 immense powers given them. It is these half-measures 

 which prove costly failures ; they are well exemplified by 

 such puerile legislation as muzzling the dogs in one county 

 and not in those which are adjacent to it. It seems inconceiv- 

 able that our national common- sense should have completely 

 failed us when hysterical men and women cried out about 

 muzzling. The dread of becoming unpopular and losing 

 votes is such, that measures which the Ministers know 

 to be right have to give way under the pressure of public 

 ignorance. 



The utter selfishness of dog owners in the matter of rabies 

 is what most impresses the observer ; as many as sixty people 

 may die in a year from hydrophobia — the most dreadful of all 

 deaths— but that is to be no excuse for putting the pet dog's 

 head in a cage when it goes out for a walk ! There is only 

 one way of dealing with such, and that is a strong Govern- 



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