712 
EDITORIAL. 
died, and the remainder, about fiity, were necessarily de¬ 
stroyed. The result in dollars and cents was a loss of more 
than $2,000, the cost of replenishing the kennel 
What then are the obligations imposed upon us, or at 
least, which recommend themselves to our serious consid¬ 
eration ? 
Preventive inoculation appears to be the proper thing, 
an inoculation which, applied to bitten animals, may, as it does 
in man, prevent the further development of the disease ; and 
above all, preventive inoculation, which will provide the or¬ 
ganism of the animal subjected to it with an immunity fully 
proved to be attainable. As the final result of a universal 
system of inoculation, we might count on the removal of the 
possibility of the transmission of the disease, because only 
unfertile soils are exposed to the culture of the virulent ele¬ 
ment which might be deposited in their organisms. 
We have for years considered inoculation in cases of con¬ 
tagious diseases of animals as the best means of controlling 
their diffusion and preventing their epidemic ravages. The 
improvements introduced in late years in the preparation, 
conservation and transportation of the preventive virus, 
have placed at the disposal of the veterinarian a sanitary 
means of control which it would seem can be no longer ig¬ 
nored, in the proper execution of their professional obli¬ 
gations. 
In a letter addressed to us by our friend Dr. P. Gibier, 
of the New York Pasteur Institute, he solicits our opinion of 
the subject of <anti-rabic inoculations as applied to all dogs ; 
we answer him in these remarks with the feeling we have 
held for years, going even further than his suggestions. 
We say: Yes; the inoculation of dogs against rabies, 
socially and humanely considered, would be a most advan¬ 
tageous measure for both beasts and man. 
Yes; the inoculation of all animals bitten by other rabid 
animals ought to be resorted to as a universal system, if only 
for financial reasons. 
Dr. Gibier’s letter is in the words following: 
