98 
EDITORIAL 
inarian, Mr. James Humphries, lias recently died from inoculation 
with the virus while making a post mortem examination. The 
news of the sad event is found on another page. 
' And how many more shall we have to report ? Glanders is 
all over our continent. There is not one of the various agricultural 
reports which does not mention it. There is not one of the agri¬ 
cultural papers, which, weekly or monthly, does not report its ex¬ 
istence. Measures are taken. Some quite rigid and satisfactory, 
others dead letters of no value; and the result is now and then a 
case of contagion, a case of death in man. Is it not time for our 
sanitary veterinarians to give their attention to the alarming ex¬ 
tent to which the disease is prevailing, and is it not time for the 
public to be once for all educated to the fact that the disease is 
equally incurable and contagious in all its stages? We have just 
before us a statement taken from a Western agricultural paper in 
Illinois, where the editor of the veterinary columns, to an inquiry 
as to whether or not glanders can be cured * * * answered yes. 
glanders can be cured in the first stages and sometimes in the sec¬ 
ond .” * * * Veterinary answers may do good in agricultural and 
sporting papers, but the editors of such columns ought to be at 
least men of education, men who know the subject they are 
discussing, and opinions like the one referred to ought not to be 
allowed to be put before the public. The only way in which it 
seems to us the people could be educated, would be to follow the 
example so well put in practice in Europe. And that is by scien¬ 
tific, and at the same time, practical conferences, which educated 
veterinarians ought to be asked to hold in their various states, not 
only upon that disease but upon all similar ones. Pleuro-pneumonia 
is now pretty well understood; why ? not so much on account of 
what has been written upon it as to the numerous discourses and 
public discussions which were held upon it. Why not do the same 
for all other contagious diseases ? Glanders and rabies are among 
them. Both carry off numerous victims through ignorance of their 
dangerous powers. Is it not the duty of veterinarians to teach the 
public what it is so much to their interest to know. We believe it, 
and we also believe that if this was done, the number of human 
deaths which have to be recorded, would to a very great extent, 
be diminished. 
