146 
EDITORIAL. 
thing other than immense yearly losses was needed to awaken in 
the public mind the necessity for measures being adopted that 
should relieve our animals from the scourges with which they are 
so seriously afflicted, and it was only after Great Britain refused 
longer to receive some of our exports, that a degree of attention 
was turned to this important subject. The results attending the 
short-lived interest in the matter are anything but flattering to 
our anticipations; for of the many diseases common to our coun¬ 
try, only that of contagious pleuro-pneumonia was considered 
worthy of legislative interference, while the measures now being 
enforced in some of our States have not been adopted for the 
protection of our stock, nor with the expectation that they will 
prove effectual in eradicating this disease, but simply that a sem_ 
blance of official protection may serve to allay the fears of other 
countries and re-open their gates, justly closed against our dan¬ 
gerous exports. 
America, with her immense extent of territory and the extra¬ 
ordinary facilities which she offers for the propagation of diseases, 
promises soon to rival the Old World in the breeding of animal 
plagues, and our neighbors cannot know too soon for their own 
interests how extended and serious are the maladies which beset 
our domestic animals, and how negligent our Government has 
been m adopting measures for efficient protection. 
Of these diseases, the one of hog cholera is undoubtedly the 
most productive of pecuniary loss. It flourishes to-day with una¬ 
bated virulence throughout the principal swine breeding districts 
of the United States. The most fatal and wide-spread of all the 
scourges known to this animal, it continues to grow in spite of 
the millions yearly slaughtered for consumption, and yet no hand 
is raised to stay its progress and but an imperfect effort made to 
learn its history, its nature or its cause. Neither is there any 
attempt made by our Government to confine the disease to our 
own territory, for the exportation of these animals is unimpeded 
by official restraint, and other countries continue to receive with¬ 
out remonstrance cargoes of these disease-bearing exports. 
If we are to judge from our past experience, there is but little 
prospect of any other state of affairs ensuing until embargoes like 
