290 Opinions on Epidemics and Epizootics. 



148 sound animals treated by them with preventive medicines, 

 and placed in contact with diseased cattle, not more than four 

 had taken the disease.* 



Such statements tend to the belief that the greatest 

 attention ought to be paid to any fact that can throw 

 light upon the causes that have facilitated the attack of the 

 disease in some cases, and prevented it in others. Hitherto the 

 doctors have not obtained the slightest clue to why some cows 

 on a farm have been infected and died, while others, apparently 

 similarly circumstanced, have escaped. It has been the custom 

 to make the most of every case of attack, and to pay little 

 attention to the instances in which the poison, whatever it may 

 be, failed to operate. 



Let us suppose for one moment that the violent hypotheses 

 concerning the cattle disease were accepted, and that the conti- 

 nental plan of destroying all cattle found in the vicinity of an 

 infected cow, and of cutting off their attendants from all inter- 

 course with the outer world, except what can take place by 

 periodically tossing them something to eat, was admitted to 

 be the best. It would follow that the only plan of staying the 

 pestilence would be one of wholesale destruction of animals, and 

 quarantine imprisonment of all human beings who had come near 

 them. But why restrict this benevolent action to cattle ? If a 

 man catches a disease of this class, and every hour that he 

 lives he scatters far and wide through the atmosphere germs of 

 poison that must kill scores, or it may be thousands, what ought 

 to be done with him ? A hospital would evidently be a mistake, 

 and leaving 1 him at home still worse. If he and all his neigh- 

 bours are not to be killed like the cows, which pseudo-science 

 might recommend, at any rate all infected and suspected per- 

 sons ought to be securely bottled up in some receptacle capable 

 of imprisoning the disease. Will our glass manufacturers turn 

 their attention to Gamgee-Lankester bottles, with admirably- 

 ground stoppers, in which the afflicted may be immured ? 



One of the beneficial results of modern science has been the 

 diminution of fear in the treatment of disease. It has been 

 shown that if persons sick of contagious disorders can be placed 

 under healthy conditions of ventilation, cleanliness, light, etc., 

 attending upon them does not involve serious risk. In 

 former ages the advent of the plague produced an epidemic 

 terror as bad as, or worse than the disease, and to this day, in 

 bhe East a similar state of mind prevails. Even at Smyrna, 

 during the recent outbreak of cholera, hotel keepers refused 

 to receive guests, all the people, doctors included, were afraid 

 to attend the sick, and misery was multiplied a hundredfold, 

 because terror assumed unrestrained command. It is to this 

 * Letter to the Times, 17th Oct. 



