820 
PLEUROPNEUMONIA. 
legislature passed an Act in 1861 with the object of applying 
certain restrictive provisions to arrest its progress ; very little 
success, however, seems to have attended the operation of the 
measure. 
Since the lung disease has been recognised as a specific 
malady, that is to say, for at least a period of half a century, 
it has excited more attention on the part of scientific men 
than any other disease of the lower animals. Very numerous 
experiments have been made in the direction of cure and pre- 
vention, scientific commissions have devoted themselves to 
the investigation of the nature of the malady, and the laws 
by which its progress is governed, legislators have endea- 
voured to cope with it by the enforcement of sanitary regu- 
lations, and yet, in spite of all that has been done by the 
most advanced science, aided bv Government enactments, 
pleuropneumonia is as rife as ever it was, and we are as power- 
less now in the presence of the pest as we were when it first 
appeared in our country. 
More remarkable, perhaps, than the failure of all attempts 
to eradicate the disease is the failure of the endeavours which 
have been made for many years by investigators to determine 
certain important points in relation to the nature and essential 
character of the malady. Pleuropneumonia possesses an 
abundant literature. There is Dr. Willems’ elaborate report 
on the disease, and the preventive effects of inoculation; 
there is the report of the Belgian Committee, who took up 
the subject at the point to which Dr. Willems had concluded 
his inquiry; there is the report of the French Commissioners 
who carried on extensive experiments in 1853-1854 for the 
purpose of testing the alleged contagious property of the dis- 
ease, and the effects of inoculation ; and there is the report 
of the English Commissioner, who visited Belgium in 1852 to 
watch Dr. Willems' experiments, and subsequently reported 
thereon in England. Besides these, and other official reports 
from Germany, France, Holland, Italy, Austria, and England, 
there are a host of memoirs from various continental veteri- 
nary authorities, and numerous essays, written in response to 
offers of prizes from Agricultural Societies, by English vete- 
rinary surgeons. Notwithstanding all this research, many 
of the fundamental points are still undecided ; at least so 
far undecided that stock-owners are divided in opinion re- 
specting them. 
Is Pleuropneumonia Contagious f 
Without entering into the subtleties which belong to argu- 
