4 
J. LAW. 
as it appeals to the moral sense as well as to the instincts of self- 
preservation of the individual and the community, the fact re¬ 
mains that the subject is too gigantic, the cost of restrictive 
measures too great, and the results promised us are too partial, 
to warrant the expectation that the government is prepared as yet 
to effectually grapple with the evil. The infected animals are 
scattered all over this great continent; they are found at least as 
abundantly in the herds of the countries adjoining us, and are 
liable to cross our frontier at any moment; the infection prevails 
not in one genus of animals only, but among all domesticated 
animals, especially the ruminants and omnivora; thus in men and 
domestic animals, we would have to inspect and control not less 
than 190,000,000 individuals scattered over an area of 3,000,000 
square miles; but, in addition to all this, wild animals that suc¬ 
cessfully evade the domination and control of man suffer equally 
with the tame; the poison can survive and multiply, not only in 
a living animal medium, but also in dead vegetable matter ; and, 
finally, man himself furnishes so many victims that, after we had 
done everything possible for the extinction of the poison in beast 
and vegetables, the sacredness of human life would still set a 
limit to our suppressive measures, and the virus would continue 
to be perpetuated everywhere in man, and at frequent intervals 
to be conveyed anew to the brute. Many millions might be spent 
on the affection to the great advantage of the community, with 
the effect of securing what might approximate to 
A Temporary Extinction 
of the active disease in the lower animals ; yet, owing to the 
persisting consumptions among men, there would be no actual 
diminution of the infected area, and no one part of the country 
could be said to have been saved from the blighting presence of 
this disease. Critics would inveigh against the prophylactic 
measures with far more effect than they now do against the Jen- 
nerian vaccination, and, if unsupported by familiar contempora¬ 
neous instances in which contagious diseases had been completely 
extinguished, the sanitarians would find it hard to obtain a con¬ 
tinued supply of the sinews of war, and to maintain the humani- 
