PROPHYLAXY OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 
657 
lealthy animals. That must be prevented. Moreover, there 
ire diseases which are so dangerous that the contaminated must 
)e killed like the sick, so as to suppress as quickly as possible 
everything that might serve as a vehicle to contagion. 
These sanitary measures have for a long time been the 
iase of all prophylaxy. To-day we still have no other means of 
guarding against certain diseases, rinderpest—for instance, that 
error of Occidental Europe. It may be said that the sanitary 
egislation of all European States prescribes slaughter not only 
>f all the sick but also of all which have had contact with them 
ind may have been contaminated directly or indirectly through 
:hem. It is an expensive medical measure, but one which is 
Lilly justified. It is because of the great losses resulting from 
m epidemic against which mild processes are used, and because, 
ifter all, the invasion of rinderpest in the countries of Occi- 
lental Europe are rare, and finally because when it is applied 
^arly and strictly it is entirely efficacious. You know that 
inderpest is an almost fatal complication of European wars ; 
irmies were followed by immense provision convoys; animals 
belonging to them are submitted to long journeys ; their financial 
/alue must be as low as possible; the grey breed of the steppes 
ulfill admirably those conditions ; it is with it that armies in 
:ainpaign are supplied, but, as in days gone by, rinderpest ex- 
sted in permanence on the steppes of Hungary and Russia. To 
die scourge of war was added that of the disease of cattle. 
It is not so any longer ; rinderpest has disappeared from 
Hungary and from European Russia ; it exists only in the far 
Drovinces of Asiatic Russia. 
L 
Against these possible infections all measures—severe as they 
may be—are justified ; they are costly, but it is the only expense, 
md if done at once is an economy, as one is sure that there will 
be no more disaster. 
Remember that in 1866 England lost far more than 100 
millions of dollars, for the reason alone that she did not recog¬ 
nize the nature of the disease at the start, and that when it was 
known she hesitated in the choice of the measures to take ; since 
