EDITORIAL. 
387 
cal difficulties in the way of positive diagnosis of the lesion itself. 
This, however, does not justify the opposition which has been 
made to the operation described by Prof. Smith, nor does it excuse 
the sarcasms which have been levelled at the results, either reported 
or unreported, which have appeared. It is a new field or, rather, 
it is one which Gunther, Stockfelt and other German surgeons 
have discovered, in which English veterinarians are now working, 
and as with many other methods of surgical treatment, when first 
practiced, perfect results may not yet have become apparent. 
There is certainly one feature with which it may undeniably be 
credited. This is its simplicity and the comparative absence of 
danger attending the process, and of complications which may 
follow it. That these, however, cannot always be overlooked 
becomes evident from one of the reports published in the present 
number of the Review, of a case upon which we experimented. 
It was our first case of this description. Of course it cannot be 
expected that every operation will succeed, and if we may found 
a judgment upon two other cases upon which we operated, and 
which are here reported by Dr. Tritschler, paralysis of the vocal 
cord was not the only cause of roaring. This fact, we believe, 
will in many cases cause the difficulty and constitute the objection 
to the operation. The three cases which are recorded in the 
present number of the Review are not sufficient to condemn the 
operation, but they must be allowed their proper weight in decid¬ 
ing upon the future success and usefulness of a treatment, the 
adoption of which, after all, may prove to be of great advantage 
to all parties interested. 
A National Patho-Biological Laboratory. —Dr. F. S. Bil¬ 
lings has favored us with a copy of a bill, of which he designs to 
procure the introduction before Congress at the coming ses¬ 
sion, and of which we will publish the entire text. It provides 
_ for an appropriation for the foundation of a National laboratory 
for the investigation of the nature of all contagious diseases, both 
of men and of animals, and in an accompanying circular, the 
learned director of the pathological laboratory of the State Uni¬ 
versity of Nebraska makes the following synoptical suggestions: 
1st. The bill arranges the work into the two distinct divisions of human and 
animal diseases, and thus at once creates a point of noble rivalry between them. 
