THE STAMPING OUT PROCESS. 
569 
) ‘ 
McEachran’s letter on contagious pleuro-pneumonia in the 
January number of your excellent periodical, but must confess 
that I have made no advance in my ascent from its perusal. The 
opinions he expresses are given something after the style of the 
ancient oracles of the Sphinx—he gives very little reasoning, and 
i quotes no authority whatever in support of his views. He says: 
“ Let there be no differences of advice;” “ I would say, stamp it 
out —kill and cremate every diseased animal,” etc. And of 
inoculation he says: “ Shame, I say, on any member of the pro¬ 
fession who would recommend it on this continent,” and more in 
the same strain. Are we all expected to unite in his views, and 
to swallow them holus bolus , simply because they are Prof. 
McEachran’s? Must we altogether ignore the converse side of 
the question, and are the opinions of men in such high standing 
in our profession as Dr. Fleming, Prof. Williams, Messrs. Ruther¬ 
ford, Cunningham, and many others of extensive knowledge and 
experience with the disease, to be set at naught and not be 
deemed worthy of consideration ? 
Dr. Fleming says: “ The persistency with which the value of 
inoculation has been ignored in this country would be astonishing, 
did we not know how stubbornly some people shut their eyes to 
the light, and close their minds to the reception of facts which 
are not in harmony with preconceived notions, or are adverse to 
opinions hastily promulgated and based on very imperfect 
knowledge.” And in a recent editorial in the Veterinary Journal 
he also speaks strongly in its favor, and says that “ the pole axe 
having failed thus far, though it has been unsparingly used on 
healthy as well as diseased cattle, surely the more scientific 
method applied to the still uncontaminated members of a herd 
should be tried and fairly judged, while the sick are dealt with 
by prompt slaughter.” 
Prof. Williams’ views, and his exhaustive article on the dis¬ 
ease in his “ Principles and Practice of Veterinary Medicine,” 
are no doubt familiar to most of your readers. He also strongly 
endorses the operation as performed by Mr. Rutherford, of 
Edinburgh. Mr. Rutherford himself, in a most interesting and 
instructive paper on “ Inoculation as a Prevention of Pleuro- 
; 
L 
