VETERINARY MEDICAL LEGISLATION. 
407 
The experience of all observers, coupled with statistics, give 
ample proof of the destructive influences at work in the epidemics 
and epizootics of which we have been the unwilling recipients. 
This, to the human family, implies a sacrifice of life, health and 
happiness, engendered by disease, and creating immeasurable 
suffering in the household. 
The report rendered by Dr. Glazier of trichinosis epidemics 
in Europe, between 1860 and 1880, comprises 160 epidemics, 
with 3,044 cases and 231 deaths ; while a similar record as to the 
United States gives 26 localized epidemics, with 77 cases and 26 
deaths. 
When it is considered that only one-quarter of the people who 
eat the flesh take the disease, and that it has been estimated that 
45,000 trichinae exist to the ounce of muscular tissue in an affected 
part of the hog, we cannot exercise too much caution in the direc¬ 
tion of prevention lest our cases become more numerous. 
The census of live stock in 1882 shows that on the farms of 
the United States there were at that time 10,357,981 horses, 
1,812,932 mules and asses, 993,970 oxen, 12,443,593 milch cows, 
22,488,500 other cattle, 35,191,656 sheep and 47,683,951 swine. 
The increase in percentage over the preceding census was, 
swine, 90 per cent.; mules and asses, 61 per cent.; cattle, 66 per 
cent.; cows, 39 per cent.; horses, 45 per cent.; sheep, 24 per 
cent.; while oxen showed a decrease of 25 per cent. 
This census is particularly interesting to the veterinarian, as 
it indicates the field he has to work in, and the tendency towards 
increase on the part of stock-raisers. 
It has been estimated that in this city there are 50 000 horses, 
at an average value of $200 each, though an exact census has 
never been taken, and the valuation includes only the work 
horses. Trotters could not be included in so low a valuation. 
The private stables of Mr. Robert Bonner, Wm. H. Vanderbilt, 
Frank Work and many other public-spirited horse owners would 
rapidly swell these figures. Take, for example, the queen, 
“Maud S.,” of the nominal value of $40,000 and an intrinsic 
value of $100,000, and where would that $200 be ? 
To show that epizootics entails financial losses, I need only 
draw your attention to a couple of examples recorded. 
