American Veterinary Review, 
DECEMBER, 1885. 
EDITORIAL 
PREVENTIVE VACCINATION IN DOMESTIC ANIMALS—OUGHT IT 
BE MADE OBLIGATORY? 
Now that Mr. Pasteur has completed his discovery of the 
true method of preventing the ravages of the contagion of an¬ 
thrax, of hog cholera, of chicken cholera and of hydrophobia, it 
devolves upon the philanthropist and the legislative guardian of 
the public weal to ponder the matter carefully, and to turn to 
practical account the conclusions of the labor and research of the 
great experimentalist. The contemplation of the beneficial 
results attainable from these discoveries, and the obligations 
under which Mr. Pasteur has placed society and the state by 
their promulgation, are vast and immeasurable. The responsi¬ 
bilities resting upon the individual owners of domestic animals 
are, also, too obvious and weighty to be ignored, and the propri¬ 
etor of an animal subject to the maladies investigated by Mr. 
Pasteur can never more be justified for failing to recognize the 
inoculation whose results are so well and so thoroughly proved. 
No owner of a herd in a district subject to anthrax can be ex¬ 
cused for leaving his cattle uninoculated. No owner of a herd 
of swine can escape censure—which a just penalty should follow 
—for neglecting their vaccination. And last, but not least, how 
can the owner of an animal subject to hydrophobia be forgiven 
for his criminal cruelty, who suffers such a creature to run at 
