American Veterinary Review, 
AUGUST and SEPTEMBER, 1885. 
EDITORIAL. 
VACCINATION AS A PROPHYLACTIC MEASURE. 
The progress reported by the veterinarians of Europe, in the 
prophylaxy of certain of the contagious diseases of our domestic 
animals, as the result of the process of inoculation, is a fact as 
yet comparatively ignored in the United States. At least, if not 
quite ignored in practice, it is resorted to rather as an uncertified 
experiment in the domain of curious inquiry, than with a recogni¬ 
tion of its established value as a tested and confirmed scientific 
method. This, in a great measure, accounts for the numerous 
reports in our agricultural papers, with circumstantial detail, of 
frequent outbreaks, in designated localities, of one or other of the 
contagions in question, and the fearful havoc which marks their 
progress, involving not only the serious money loss which befals 
the individual sufferers, but affecting, in a greater ur less degree, 
the general wealth of the nation. 
This being the case, the question which presses for an answer 
is, Who is to blame for this ? Who is responsible for the neglect 
of inoculation in bacteridian and bacterian authrax, in hog choler: i 
and in chicken cholera, in this country % Why is it that prophy¬ 
lactic means are employed against a single disease only, pleuro- 
