710 
EDITORIAL. 
diseases of animals, the query necessarily presents itself to 
those who are brought in connection with the treatment of 
our domestic animals, and the care of their health, why should 
not the benefits of prophylactic vaccination be extended to 
this class of subjects, in all diseases that are communicable to 
mankind, and their owners be relieved from the danger and 
loss which may accompany or follow an outbreak of the conta¬ 
gions in question among other species of their live stock? 
The experiments are no longer tentative, but have passed 
into demonstrations, and if their proven and indisputable 
value and the wide extent of their applicability have not yet 
become so clearly patent to the universal perception and ap¬ 
preciation of the intelligent classes—indeed, of all classes—as 
^ ought to be, it is difficult to say who is most to blame for 
it, though we fear that to veterinarians a large share of the 
blame must be charged. 
To whom is the world indebted for the control of small- 
« 
pox in mankind by vaccination, so far as it has been secured ? 
Of course, and emphatically, to physicians. And what hinders 
the veterinarian from occupying a position in respect to the 
contagious diseases of the domestic animals corresponding 
with that of the physician towards his patient ? Why does 
he not apply to animal diseases the modes of prophylaxy that 
have proved so satisfactory in the hands of the human physi¬ 
cian ? And why is not the veterinarian as ready to see the 
advantage of applying inoculation to animals which are ex¬ 
posed to contagious diseases, the majority of which, more¬ 
over, are communicable to man, as the physician is to ex¬ 
tend the benefits of vaccination in a threatened outbreak of 
smallpox in the human family ? 
Is not anthrax, whether bacterian or bacteridian in its na¬ 
ture, prevented by inoculation, acccording to the system 
practised by Pasteur, Chauveau, Cornevin ? Cannot chicken 
cholera be prevented by inoculation, as recommended by Sal¬ 
mon and, we believe, Law? Is not even hog cholera claimed 
to be preventable by the same means, as recommended by F. 
S. Billings? Is it not also claimed that pleuro-pneumonia in 
cattle can be similarly kept under control ? Does the efhca- 
