PATHOLOGICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
10 T 
Upon a more careful reading, however, we regret to find that 
the information given by the many correspondents is not suffici¬ 
ently definite nor accurate to be of any considerable value to our 
readers. 
If we may be allowed to make a suggestion, we would strongly 
urge upon the Commissioner of Agriculture, the propriety, where 
practicable, of having reports from the leading veterinarians of 
the different States as to the nature and extent of prevailing dis¬ 
eases ; giving special attention to enzootics or epizootics. 
If this can be done, and if members of the professon will in¬ 
terest themselves in the matter, we fail to see any reason why 
these “ .Reports ” cannot be made of much practical value. It is 
a step in the right direction, and the Department of Agriculture 
merits not only our thanks, but also our assistance. 
PATHOLOGICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
CHARBON AND THE GERM THEORY OF DISEASE. 
By D. E. Salmon, D.V.M.* 
i. 
The study of contagious diseases is to-day the most important 
work attracting the attention of scientific men ; for not only is 
the loss of human life from them enormous, but the loss of prop¬ 
erty by their ravages among our live-stock, and the necessary ob¬ 
struction of commerce is becoming a matter for the most serious 
consideration. 
Until the last few years the contagious plagues of men and 
animals have been shrouded with the most impenetrable mystery, 
to be explained only as punishments sent or allowed by an angry 
God; and when the black plague destroyed twenty-five millions 
of people in Europe at a single invasion, or when it devastated 
such great cities as London, there were few, if any, who imag¬ 
ined it possible for medical science to combat these terrible 
scourges with any hope of success. But quarantines have already 
done much, and it is only in exceptional instances that the ad- 
*From The American Monthly Microscopical Journal, April, 1881 
