STATE HYGIENE 555 



look at, but are a source of income, and if an owner gets a 

 disease like glanders into his stud it is his duty to get rid 

 of it, just as he would, for instance, have to do if the disease 

 were influenza ; and from the point of view of a guardian 

 of the public purse this aspect is natural enough. 



What the lay mind in these questions is unable to grasp, 

 is that if a disease is to be eradicated it cannot be left to 

 individual efforts, for the reason that a definite programme 

 is required applicable to all and everyone, without which 'A' 

 may at some cost free himself from disease, and yet get 

 infected again from his neighbour ' B,' who has made little 

 or no attempt, and has sacrificed nothing. 



Uniform action must be observed, definite rules laid down 

 by which all have to abide whether anxious or no, and this 

 is where the small owner is severely hit, for in the disease 

 under consideration to destroy without compensation three 

 horses out of his four, or perhaps the lot, may simply bring 

 him face to face with the bankruptcy court. This question 

 will be reconsidered later. 



The general features of glanders are well known. It is 

 a disease of cities and not of the country ; its centre is 

 London from which it spreads into the neighbouring 

 counties. If, as Hunting has done in his tables,* the cases 

 occurring in London and the surrounding counties be 

 added together, they are found to represent 90 per cent, of 

 the total number of cases in England. 



These figures, extracted from the Government Eeturns, 

 are an excellent object-lesson, there is no doubt where 

 legislation should begin, and the influence of overcrowding 

 is well shown. 



Glanders is said to be slowly but surely increasing ; the 

 following chart from Hunting shows the annual fluctua- 

 tions of Glanders for 23 years in Great Britain, the curve 

 is irregular, and it is not always clear why it should be. 

 Hunting explains the 1881 and 1892 figures by the preva- 

 lence of influenza, but this does not help to clear up the 



* 'Glanders': Mr. W. Hunting, F.B.O.V.S., Proceedings of the 

 National Veterinary Association, 1902. 



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