G60 
THE VETERINARIAN, SEPTEMBER 1, 1869. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat.— Cicero. 
THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES (ANIMALS) ACT. 
Since the ravages of the cattle plague taught owners of 
stock the true importance of sanitary regulations, the idea of 
legislation being brought to bear upon the diseases of animals 
has undergone rapid development. Not many years ago a 
bill, which proposed to place certain restrictions on the move¬ 
ment of cattle affected with pleuro-pneumonia and mouth 
and foot disease, met with a storm of opposition that swamped 
it out of existence. Recently a much more stringent mea¬ 
sure was passed, with the concurrence of that interest which 
had been so strenuously exerted in opposition to the former 
attempts to establish sanitary laws in relation to animals. A 
little experience of a somewhat stern character sufficed to 
effect a revolution of feeling, and afforded to the members of 
the veterinary profession the sad triumph of a victory at the 
expense of their art by demonstrating the entire superiority 
of the stamping-out system ” over the science of thera¬ 
peutics in the treatment of infectious diseases of animals. It 
must he confessed that it was not consolatory to discover 
this ; but it is nevertheless true that medicine signally failed 
to cure a disease which was easily arrested by measures that 
required the action of the policeman rather than the veteri¬ 
nary surgeon for their effectual carrying out. 
Our continental neighbours have a phrase which we trans¬ 
late sanitary police,” and the medical science of the day is 
fast advancing to this semi-judicial condition. Before the 
cure of disease is its prevention; and the art of preserving 
health, based as it is on known and infallible laws, is an 
infinitely nobler one than the cure of disease, founded as it 
is, at the best, on rational hypothesis, and, at the worst, on 
empiricism and error. 
What will be the final result of the application of sanitary 
