ZYMOTIC DISEASES 
Impressed as I am with a sense of the great national importance of a better 
attention to the Zymotic diseases of animals, I feel that as a body representative of the 
Veterinary Profession, we would be untrue to ourselves and the nations of North 
America if we failed to give out an earnest statement on this subject. In offering a few 
hurried words on this topic, I prefer to use the word Zymotic rather than contagious 
or infectious , seeing that in spite of its acknowledged drawbacks, it embraces all affec¬ 
tions in which there is danger from proximity of the sick and healthy, and that it is not 
so restricted in meaning as to exclude the parasitic or the strictly inoculable diseases as 
might be the case with the other terms. I would seek in my general remarks to cover 
whatever diseases as are transmissible from animal to animal, and which therefore tend 
to diminish the numbers and impair the excellency of our flocks and herds, to reduce 
the wealth of the nation, or to undermine the health and vigor of the people. 
Such a statement is a simple act of justice to ourselves, since with a large propor¬ 
tion of the community, our profession is regarded as exhausting its functions in the 
mere employment of drugs and blisters and in the performance of a limited number of 
surgical operations. How often is the recommendation to destroy a useless and danger¬ 
ous animal met by the assertion that our business is to cure—not to kill. 
That a statement of this kind is an act of justice to the governments and peoples 
is but too sadly apparent in the bitter experience of Great Britain, Holland and other 
countries that, in their hour of danger openly sneered at what they were pleased to call 
“ the logic of the pole axe,” and cast contempt on their accomplished veterinarians 
when they offered the only rational and economical system of prevention. 
Estimates have been made of the hundreds of millions lost to Europe, at frequent 
intervals as the result of the diffusion of one or two animal plagues, but who will 
ever compute the aggregate losses endured in the depreciated but non fatal cases, in the 
loss of the prospective progeny of valuable races, in the imperfect harvests consequent 
on the deficient manuring, tillage and preservation of the crops owing to the inadequacy 
of the surviving stock, and in the deterioration of human health in connexion with the 
insufficient yield of the soil ? And who will tell the destruction incident to parasitic 
and other affections, which, in times past failed to be recognized^ and were therefore 
allowed to spread without let or hindrance ? Even with educated men there is no 
proper knowledge nor appreciation of this subject. Usually they are steeped in the pro- 
foundest ignorance of the whole matter. Too often when an attempt is made to 
enlighten them, they repeat the act of the hunted and hopeless ostrich, and seek to ignore 
and shut out of sight the peril, of the existence of which their judgment is being 
convinced. Concluding that “where ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to be wise,” they esteem 
it happier to risk the myriad surrounding dangers, than to render life miserable by a 
constant apprehension of lurking enemies, where they have been hitherto unsuspected. 
Our task then is a thankless one, but are we thereby exonerated from the duty of 
uttering a solemn warning? Yerily no. It has been the experience of all prophets and 
teachers since the world began, that they first met with deaf ears, and finally, if they 
