8 l2 
EDITORIALS. 
tomed to consider as an authority in matters concerning sani¬ 
tary veterinary medicine. 
The article will no doubt create a sensation, especially in 
Massachusetts, where things do not seem to run very smoothly, 
if we are to believe the comptes rendus of some investigations 
which have been made in relation to the manner in which the 
process of tuberculin test has been carried out, the specific tag¬ 
ging of cattle has been done, etc. Our worthy friends of the 
Board of Cattle Commissioners must have had unpleasant tasks 
and disagreeable duties to perform, but after all it was for the 
good of all, and it does not belong to us to be too severe in our 
criticisms so long as we have no official authority to inform us, 
and we are obliged to depend on news and agricultural papers. 
But leaving all that as it is, all this noise about tuberculosis, 
like all that which was made at the time of pleuro-pneumonia, must 
have a bad effect, not only at home, but abroad. In fact it has, 
and if we are to believe that the French Government has 
passed resolutions preventing the importation of American 
cattle on French soil, because of the prevalence of contagious 
diseases, is it not justifiable to think that this tuberculosis scare 
has something to do with it ? 
The pretended cause for the action of the French Govern¬ 
ment is simply ridiculous—for certainly we have no contagious 
diseases among our cattle of which French authorities can be 
afraid, and we have no doubt that our Chief of the Bureau of 
Animal Industry will at once take proper measures to show the 
error of closing French ports to American cattle. 
Let us make less noise about the disease—let us work 
quietly. Do not allow us to boast too much of the beginning of 
one undertaking, which in the eyes of many cannot be certain of 
success, and in all probabilities we will be spared many annoy¬ 
ances and disappointments. Veterinarians have already been 
pretty roughly spoken of in relation to this noise; it would be 
better for them to be more careful, less hasty, and less 
positive of the results they have in view, no matter how power¬ 
ful their convictions may be. 
