194 
EDITORIAL. 
so diffused and naturalized throughout our widespread territory 
as to involve an expense and difficulty in their suppression alto¬ 
gether too formidable to contemplate, if, indeed, it were possible 
by any means or at any cost. And who will undertake to esti¬ 
mate the amount of public expenditure and the extent of the pri¬ 
vate loss attendant upon any concerted and efficient measures of 
suppression, with such an evil for the object of encounter ? 
Almost all the diseases of a contagious nature have now been 
brought to our land from Europe, mostly without attracting any 
proper degree of attention, and, until lately, without being met 
with any precautions against their diffusion through the whole 
country ; and the question is often discussed in our veterinary 
meetings, whether rinderpest itself may not some day be an¬ 
nounced as another distinguished visiting stranger, coming to re¬ 
new its old associations with its Old Country companions—pleuro¬ 
pneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, tuberculosis, and especially 
our latest importation, dourine , all of which may now be ac¬ 
counted American diseases, and none the less because they are 
merely naturalized foreigners and not native-born aborigines. 
Veterinarians of European education, who have been practic¬ 
ing in the United States, have more than once suggested the pro¬ 
priety of watching against the importation of this most serious 
affection of solipeds, and practitioners of this class have, there¬ 
fore, been but little surprised at the news of the outbreak in 
Illinois. 
The people, however, are alarmed, and as Illinois has already 
suffered severely by the outbreak of contagious pleuro-pneumonia, 
and they are not anxious to suffer further loss of the same char¬ 
acter, they are quite prepared to meet this new invasion with all 
the energy, and to apply all the means towards suppression, which 
may be demanded by the stress of the emergency. 
A full discussion of the subject was had at a recent meeting 
in DeWitt County, and resulted in the adoption of the following 
resolutions : 
To the People of Be Witt County ; 
Whereas, A disease exists among horses in this county, known as “ Mal- 
adie du coit,” or epizootic chancre, and, whereas, all good citizens should esteem 
it a privilege and duty to aid in every ossible way in its suppression, and 
