EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
729 
in all seriousness is not the ceaseless charge becoming feeble ? 
and would not a few facts, we mean statements of actual 
occurrences, with dates, names, and address, and all essential 
particulars, furnish a pleasing variety and possibly tend to 
good results? Circumstances alter cases so much that it is 
really necessary sometimes to go a little into details ; for 
instance, a short time ago we had to make an inquiry re- 
specting an outbreak of pleuro-pneumonia among Dutch 
cattle. The first thing we found out was, that the animals 
had been in this country for some months ; and the next 
thing was, that one of them was suffering from ordinary in- 
flammation of the lungs, which is in all medical nomencla- 
ture called pleuro-pneumonia. We merely allude to this 
case in illustration of the value which is to be attached to 
general statements which emanate from persons who in 
plain phrase do not know anything of the subject on which 
they discourse so eloquently. 
As to the causes which have led to the extraordinary 
spread of foot-and-mouth disease we need not say much. 
In the first place the disease is highly infectious, and its 
period of incubation is short. Next, nothing is done to 
prevent the extension of the malady. We are, of course, 
aware that a number of policemen are employed by the 
local authorities to obtain returns of the number of cases, 
and we also know that they gain the information from the 
farmer or the farmer’s men, tabulate it, and send it to the 
central office. We do not doubt that the duty is well done, 
and we are personally indebted to the force for much valuable 
statistical information. 
Also we have seen some activity displayed lately in pro- 
secuting offenders against the law which prohibits the 
movement or exposure in public places of diseased animals ; 
here, again, we console ourselves with the reflection that 
justice is vindicated, and the guilty persons punished, after 
they have done the mischief. Of course, it would be un- 
reasonable to punish them beforehand ; but does any one 
imagine that these proceedings, quite necessary as they are, 
have any influence in repressing the spread of an infectious 
disease among animals ? There is no mystery in the 
matter ; the disease is propagated in obedience to the laws 
