652 
ED. NOCARD. 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
PROPHYLAXY OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF DOMES¬ 
TIC ANIMALS. 
By Prop. Ed. Nocard,* France. 
Gentlemen : 
^ ^ ^ ^ 
In the narrow sense of the word, prophylaxy means the pre¬ 
vention of diseases. To apply prophylaxy is to put in practice 
the proverb, u prevention is better than cure.” This is better 
m every way, because there are diseases which are incurable, or 
rarely cured, because even in cases of recovery the owner al¬ 
ways stands a loss, varying with the duration of the disease, 
the depreciation it involves and the expenses of treatment, and 
finally with the often considerable number of animals affected. 
It is such that such disease, not serious by itself, because it very 
seldom kills, and is cured in a few days or a few weeks ; fever, 
for instance, is in reality, to the economical point of view, more 
serious than rinderpest, with which 90 per cent, at least of the 
affected animals die ; it is because aphthous fever spreads with 
frightful rapidity ; few animals escape contagion, and the loss, 
proportional to the number of affected individuals, reaches enor¬ 
mous figures. 
All infectious diseases do not develop in the same way. 
Hence the methods to control them are numerous and varied. 
The first condition to carry out good prophylaxy is to know 
how the disease develops : “ Sublatus causa tollitur effectus .” 
To suppress the cause it must be known, and when it is it be¬ 
comes more or less easy, more or less completely suppressed. 
Eebus take, for example, malaria of man, also known as in¬ 
termittent fever, paludism. This is a disease known from time 
immemorial. Until recent years its nature was unknown. It 
is known now that it develops in the neighborhood of ponds, or 
* Extract from L'Ingenieur Agricole de Gembloux. Translated by A. Liautard. 
