342 THE EPIZOOTIC DISEASES IN HORSES, CATTLE, &c. 
in which there is no veterinary surgeon, or where there are none 
but ignorant peasants and impostors, will expose that district of 
country to absolute ruin. The contagion will not fail to proceed 
step by step, until the infected surface of the ground will be so 
wide that it will be scarcely possible ever to eradicate the evil. 
This account of too many of our districts is fearful, but it is strictly 
true. Often the nature of the epizootic has not been recognized 
until after a long succession of professional or unprofessional 
murders, and then the knowledge of the malady comes too late. 
u Some epizootics commence simultaneously in a great number 
of places ; others are first observed in one narrow district : but 
they rapidly begin to spread over a tract of country truly 
immense, observing, sometimes, as they proceed, one direction 
only ; but in that fearful path traversing climates as different as it is 
possible to imagine. In some cases it travels with immense ra- 
pidity from one country to another. At other times its progress 
is altogether as slow, without, however, at any time being actually 
suspended. Occasionally the epizootic seems suddenly to disap- 
pear, but only to return all at once with ten-fold violence. This in- 
dicates the propriety of persevering in the employment of preserva- 
tive means for some time after the epidemic has appeared to cease. 
“ With regard to their duration, the epizootics occasionally pre- 
sent a strange difference. Some disappear in the course of a 
few months — others continue to devastate the country for one or 
more years. Their course may, perhaps, be divided into several 
epochs, each of which offers some peculiarity, whether with re- 
gard to the symptoms or the complications, or the danger or the 
mode of termination, or that of treatment. In every epizootic 
there are periods in which they assume a serious and dangerous 
character — there are others in which they are comparatively mild. 
The treatment will necessarily vary according to the different 
periods of the disease and the variation of the symptoms. 
“ In every epidemic there are serious questions with regard to 
the use of the flesh and the milk of animals labouring under it. 
Should the use of them be permitted I or should the sale of one 
or both be forbidden ? This is an exceedingly important and 
delicate question. It is essentially connected with the health 
and, perhaps, the life of man and brutes. The general opinion 
which is entertained and established of the possible and actual 
unwholesomeness of these things would naturally lead to their 
prohibition. This is the wisest and the safest course to pursue ; 
and, although the interests of some individuals may suffer, both 
propriety and safety demand that their prohibition should be en- 
forced. There are numerous cases in which the flesh of animals 
that had been destroyed by the epizootic has proved injurious to 
