DISSEMINATION AND CONTROL OF TEXAS FEYER. 
405 
over them may be liable to contract the disease, but this is by no 
means certain, and if the owner chooses to take the risk he evi¬ 
dently has the right to do so, since he alone will suffer. If a 
road is known to be infected, a notice should be posted, in the 
interest of the public, at the nearest cross-road in each direction, 
warning people of the danger of driving cattle over it; but the 
owner of susceptible cattle is in no danger while he keeps them 
from the grounds upon which those from the South have traveled, 
and he, consequently, needs no such unusual measures for his pro¬ 
tection as is applied in a general quarantine of all bovine animals. 
It is plain, however, that the proper remedy is beyond all 
local regulations; that it should prevent the infection of roads, 
commons, and pastures, by prohibiting the introduction of cattle 
from the district permanently infected with Texas fever. This is 
a matter of infinite importance to the country at large, but it is 
also one that has been and will be attended with unusual difficul¬ 
ties and that will require the greatest wisdom and experience to 
perfect its many details. It is doubtful if it can ever be accom¬ 
plished by the States individually, and it would seem that some 
way must soon be devised by which the National Government can 
draw a line from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, across 
which all movement of cattle can be definitely controlled. If we 
are at present in the absurd predicament that the States are unable 
to enforce effective legislation because this is interfering with the 
prerogatives of the nation, and that the latter can do nothing 
because this would be violating the rights of the States, there 
certainly can be no good reason, in this practical age and with 
our present standard of intelligence, why we should not be able 
to extricate ourselves whenever we are satisfied that this is essen¬ 
tial to our interests. 
In cases where native cattle are upon infected pastures the 
owner can do something towards checking the progress of the 
disease among his stock by removing them at once to an uncon¬ 
taminated field. 
Respectfully submitted, 
D. E. Salmon, D.V.M. 
Asheville, N. C., Sept. 15, 1882. 
