INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW SERIES. 
41 
infection analogous to that of variola or scarlatina. In point 
of science, this fact presents great interest, but it is of more im- 
portance as regards the public health. It shews to what dangers 
those persons are exposed who approach individuals affected with 
these disorders, and it will induce medical men to take and re- 
commend precautions for avoiding the contagion. Even here it 
ought not to rest; it calls for the interference of government. 
Let us hope that the authorities, in giving more attention to that 
part of public hygiene which concerns domestic animals, and by 
causing horses affected with these disorders to be destroyed, may 
put a limit to this horrible disease. 
The Lancet. 
THE VETERINARIAN, JANUARY 1, 1842. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero. 
The year 1839 beheld our Journal augmented in size from 
60 to 100 pages ; and in price increased from eighteen pence to 
half-a-crown : the year 1842 will behold it reduced to its former 
dimensions and price. Our friends and subscribers all being in 
possession of the knowledge of the circumstances that have led 
to these changes, no explanation need at our hands be offered. 
Whether they are likely to tend to the advantage or disadvantage 
of the Journal can be by time alone determined ; and whether 
they do or not, it is still no less the ardent desire of its con- 
ductors that such alterations may, in the end, subserve to the 
benefit and advancement of the veterinary art. The principles 
which our Journal has hitherto espoused — the unbought and un- 
purchasable independence it has hitherto maintained — its determi- 
nation to stand or fall with that art which it essays to promulgate, 
and that profession by which it has been fed and supported, come 
what will or what may, must — shall remain unchanged. The 
Veterinarian has never, from the very first, had but one object 
in view — to assist in, and afford opportunities for, the cultivation 
of afield of science which had long — too long — lain unexplored. 
How far it has, in the course of the fourteen years it has worked, 
fulfilled this object, those who have been its “ constant readers” 
VOL. xv. F 
