SANITARY POLICE AND THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 945 
invasion and impeding the propagation of the cattle plague; 
but to obtain the adoption of an identical code of rules by all 
the countries which have combined for this object. The 
efficacy of these rules is proved by the beneficial results 
which they have always given, wherever they have been 
rigorously applied. These results are such that it may be 
affirmed that this terrible plague, from the ravages of which 
we have suffered for more than two years, is, however, of all 
epizootics, the one of which it is most easy to become master 
under ordinary circumstances, and with a w r ell-organized 
sanitary staff. This is because, being a stranger to our 
country, it is not susceptible of taking root there. Arising 
entirely from contagion, it is only by that means upheld ; and 
when its cause is suppressed it is absolutely certain that it will 
itself disappear, as is witnessed by all ages and in all places. 
But if this is so, how* is it that w*e ourselves have so much 
difficulty in getting rid of it; and that even now r , after the 
lapse of nearly tw 7 o years since its first appearance, it still 
rages in certain localities in some of our departments ? In 
the first place, the plague made its appearance in consequence 
of a combination or disastrous circumstances; and having 
been imported by means of the commissariat of a foreign 
army, it was able to extend itself without check over a large 
extent of country, and was even assisted in its march and 
extension, by the going and coming of the troops. This 
result was still further increased by those who made use of 
the cattle plague as a source of profit, and who, for that pur¬ 
pose, engaged in a speculative traffic, which consisted in 
purchasing in the infected districts, at a low price, beasts 
already contaminated, for the purpose of selling them at a 
higher price in districts where the plague w 7 as not then 
known. 
The mischief had already acquired enormous proportions 
when the central administration of agriculture, having once 
more become master of its actions, undertook to contend 
against it. But we do not possess-in France a sanitary ser¬ 
vice organized as it should be, so that all sanitary require¬ 
ments could be executed as they were deemed necessary, and 
so that every resistance could be immediately surmounted. 
In France the difficult task of executing these requirements 
belongs to the municipal authorities ; in Germany this 
mission is confided to a councillor, w ho is delegated by the 
administration, and is assisted by a Veterinary Council. 
This councillor is invested with powers which give him the 
right to command the local authorities, and even the militarv, 
to assist him in carrying out, to the extent that is necessary, 
