218 
EDITORIAL. 
tions, and still suffered greatly from the comparatively unjust 
severity of its first conditions. The subject, however, was 
one of too much importance to be overlooked by the general 
government, or fail to receive due attention from the national 
guardians of the interests of the people. The labor of th^ 
Bureau of Animal Industry was not wasted, and after several 
years of careful and well organized effort, the disease was by 
degrees effectively subjugated. State after State, and county 
after county, were relieved from its ravages, and it is now so 
effectually under control that it may be safely predicted that 
in a very short time the United States authorities will be in 
condition to announce to the world the complete extirpation 
throughout all her borders of contagious pleuro-pneumonia, 
an announcement which few, if any of the European States 
will be able to match. The energy which the present Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture, Hon. J. M. Rusk, has practiced in 
the management of this important question reflects the highest 
credit upon that gentleman, and it is through his recent proc¬ 
lamation, together with the active work recently organized by 
him in Long Island, that the promulgation in a very short 
time of the official declaration of exemption has become a 
possibility and a fact. 
Nor is this all. Not only will contagious pleuro-pneumo¬ 
nia be, in fact, stamped out and destroyed, and our exported 
cattle show no traces of it when they leave our ports, but they 
will also arrive outward as they started, in a healthy condi¬ 
tion, and that condition will be substantiated by means of offi¬ 
cial veterinary inspection, the government at Washington 
having decided to station a special agent in London, who will 
have acting under him three other veterinarians , stationed re¬ 
spectively in London , Liverpool and Glasgow, and, no doubt, a 
faithful performance of their duties will prove in a very short 
time the injustice of the charges made against us in alleging 
the shipment of lung-diseased animals from the United States. 
The inspectors are to report for service on the ist of August, 
and will consist of Doctors Wray, Melvin and Ryder, with 
Mr. J. H. Sander, of Chicago, as special agent of the depart¬ 
ment, but not in a professional capacity. The three first 
