CORRESPONDENCE. 
129 
disease, or of those who can be scared into inaction by personal 
grievances of the inconveniences which arise in infected districts 
These difficulties and many more, which exist now , must be met 
and overcome. 
The system of quarantine, if it is to be an effectual aid toward 
eradicating the lung-plague, must be more rigidly enforced. Re¬ 
strictions much more severe than at present imposed must be 
placed upon the movements of cattle. This is imperative. So 
long as this avenue is left open to the contagion, we cannot expect 
any permanent diminution of the disease. Plenro-pneumonia can 
never be exterminated from our borders by quarantine and disin¬ 
fection alone, unless within infected farms, neighborhoods, and 
conveyances of all descriptions, the removal or introduction, or 
passing through of animals or other means of contagion be for a 
time entirely suspended. So long as cattle pass into and from 
infected yards or districts, to any and all parts with almost ab¬ 
solutely no restrictions, as at present, it savors of irony to say that 
we are getting rid of the disease. We are, at best, only getting 
rid of it at one place by sending it to another. There seems 
nothing plainer than that to kill every infected animal, and every 
animal that has been exposed to the co7itagion ; to quarantine and 
disinfect the premises, vehicles, etc.; to forbid entirely all move¬ 
ments of cattle in such districts for from two to three months is 
the cheapest and possibly the only way of ever getting rid of this 
scourge. As has already been suggested, the National Commission 
should number a veterinarian as one of its board , and not a mere 
agent or hanger-on ; that these Commissioners be appointed, con¬ 
ditional on the faithful and rigid discharge of their duties, for 
not less than ten years, and at such a salary as will command the 
undivided attention of honest and proficient men. 
It is essential that the National and State authorities consist of 
men who have sufficient intimacy or knowledge of the disease in 
question to recognize it as a specific , contagious , bovine scourge, 
and as one that invariably presents its own peculiar pathological 
lesions ; post-mortem appearances, which, when fully developed, 
are characteristic of this disease and no other; that they under¬ 
stand and guard against not only the probable but every possible 
