CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF ANIMALS. 
5 
tarian conflict. A failure, after such a crusade had been inaugur¬ 
ated, would mean a staggering blow to all sanitary legislation, 
and a serious retarding of the immeasurable boon which, through 
this means, may be secured for suffering humanity. Great and 
ubiquitous as is the evil of animal tuberculosis, I would advise 
that, for the present, no veterinary sanitary legislation for its 
suppression be sought from the national Congress, but that the 
subject be, for a time, left in the hands of municipal health offi¬ 
cers, physicians, and hygienists ; in other words, let each indi¬ 
vidual and the local community adopt such protective measures as 
come within their power, or as the exigencies of their particular 
case may demand. All such isolated action is confessedly very 
imperfect, and comparatively ineffectual, yet it will be of vast 
benefit, and will prove a stepping-stone to that national control 
which, I trust, many now present may live to see, and which 
should aim at the entire extinction of this bane of civilization. 
Turn to another of our great prevailing animal plagues. The 
so-called hog cholera or 
Swine Plague 
has become domiciled in all our great pork-raising districts. A 
few years ago the annual losses were estimated at $20,000,000, a 
sum which implies at once a decimation of our 50,000,000 swine, 
and a general prevalence of the disease wherever swine are bred 
on a large scale. The great area involved in these ravages, and 
the number of contaminating herds and infected premises, would 
make any effort to stamp out this disease a herculean task. 
Again, though there is a presumption that this disease once extir¬ 
pated, would be rcoted out for good, still we are not yet certain 
that it does not arise indigenously in our own land, and that, 
after all our labor and outlay, we would not still be confronted 
by new centers of infection developed by unhealthy conditions 
among badly-managed herds. It is more than questionable 
whether Congress would appropriate the means necessary to 
stamp out the plague, and thoroughly seclude and disinfect all 
infected premises, and no one can doubt that it would be next to 
impossible to secure a continuance of such appropriation if the 
disease persisted in cropping out anew at frequent intervals, and 
