704 
EDITORIAL. 
cent.; of the 6,500,000 sheep, one tenth of 1 per cent.; and of 
24,000,000 hogs, one-third of 1 per cent. In the control of in¬ 
digenous diseases, 1,500,000 inspections were made and over 
45,000 cars disinfected in the Texas fever service alone. In the 
repression of scabies in sheep nearly 8,000,000 animals were in¬ 
spected, and over 1,000,000 dipped under the supervision of the 
department inspectors. In combatting the disease known as 
“black leg” the bureau distributed over 1,500,000 doses of 
vaccine, the result ;being to reduce losses in affected herds to 
less than 1 per cent., where formerly it was in most cases about 
10 per cent. To aid in detecting tuberculosis in cattle and 
glanders in horses, over 44,000 doses of tuberculine and 7000 
doses of mallein have been supplied. The Secretary points out 
the serious evil resulting from a system of State inspection 
which, if it became general, would effectually prevent the 
marketing of live stock in some sections, and would destroy 
much of the usefulness of the Federal inspection. He regards 
the present conditions as so menacing to the interests of the 
cattle industry in the West and Southwest that he has requested 
the Attorney General to cooperate in bringing the matter before 
the Supreme Court for decision as to the constitutionality of 
these State laws. This request has been favorably received and 
the assistance of the Department of Justice promised. 
FOR THE STUDY OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 
An addition of great interest has just been made to the 
Alfort School, France, which will prove one of great attraction 
to foreign veterinarians. That is the buildings erected for the 
new institute for study and research relating to all contagious 
diseases and principally to that which occasions such great 
losses all over the continent, and which seems to baffle all sani¬ 
tary measures, viz., foot-and-mouth disease. 
We have visited the institute and have already had the pleas¬ 
ure to act as cicerone for some of our American friends. The 
new institute consists of a number of pavilions isolated from 
each other and subdivided into boxes, also perfectly isolated. 
