10 VETERINARY SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 
Pennsylvania. These three states form the centres of con¬ 
tagion. In Connecticut the cattle commissioners have powers 
of quarantine, but not compulsory slaughter. In Maryland 
and Virginia the disease is also rife. Massachusetts (which 
has several times “ stamped out” the disease), Rhode Island, 
and Chicago, were reported free in April of the present year. 
We may now see the special necessities which render Mr. 
Billing's suggestion of a National Veterinary Police an im¬ 
portant one. In 1877 the value of cattle in the United 
States was reckoned at 1,600,000,000 dollars. In the 
Review for May, 1878, are some highly valuable calculations, 
tending to show that 476£, or 89,019 veterinary surgeons 
are required to protect this animal wealth. In August, 
1879, we are told, with regard to laws for prevention of 
cattle disease, that twenty-one states are without any, ten 
with some regulations, sixteen with an indefinite state of 
affairs, while one furnishes no information. In Massachusetts 
there is only one veterinary official—Thayer, of Boston— 
who since 1859 has been on the staff of the Cattle Commission 
of that State. The 'Ohio Agricultural Report' of 1877-78 
tells us there are there no veterinary sanitary laws and 
regulations. 
National veterinary organisation was brought before 
Congress by Dr. John Busteed, when President of the New 
York College of Veterinary Surgeons; but though he 
attracted some attention to it, the matter dropped when it 
passed from beneath his immediate control. This is a 
matter in which America has yet to act. 
Army veterinary organisation of the United States is 
receiving some attention. We are told by a highly educated 
and liberal-minded medical man in the August (1879) number 
of the Review that “ a report of the epidemic among horses in 
Fort Randall, Nebraska, 1856, is the only veterinary obser¬ 
vation noted in the medical reports for a period of more than 
twenty years. Though the United States army consists mostly 
of cavalry there are no veterinary surgeons in the service, so 
sick horses almost invariably die.” Since this time it has 
been decided that, in the future, none but regularly educated 
veterinary surgeons shall be appointed, that all candidates 
must be recommended by commanding officers, must be 
approved by intermediate commanders, and pass an exami¬ 
nation. Liautard gives us some facts concerning the develop¬ 
ment of the United States Army Veterinary Department. 
In 1868 one veterinary surgeon was allotted to each regi¬ 
ment of cavalry, with pay of 75 dollars per mensem and rank 
of sergeant-major. In 1866, matters improved, the pay being 
