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persevered, with abuse and persecution. Yet those neglected, despised and abused 
personages have been the true benefactors of humanity, and almost every step in 
human progress has been heralded by their voluntary personal immolations. 
Our case is all the harder, that those who are devoid of the not unnatural repugnance 
I have referred to, and on whom the work of restricting animal plagues is usually im¬ 
posed in this country—the physicians—have rarely any just appreciation of the magni¬ 
tude and importance of the subject. In a Bill introduced into Congress in 1872, and 
prepared by an eminent physician and sanitarian, the diseases of animals named, as 
specially demanding investigation and supervision are “ cattle plague, rot in sheep, and 
cerebro-spinal meningitis in horses.” Now I might fairly ask why name for special 
investigation Rinderpest , which has never been seen on the American Continent? Why 
rot in sheep , of the existence of which in America I can find no reliable proof? And 
why cerebro-spinal meningitis—an American malady truly, but one that is probably not 
at all communicable from animal to animal ? But what of the long list of transmissible 
diseases which are already decimating the flocks and herds of this country ? And what 
of the further list which, prevailing in other lands, are liable at any time to be import¬ 
ed into our midst ? 
I find that there are from fifty to one hundred communicable affections prevalent 
among domestic animals, that demand more or less concerted efforts for their extinction 
or restriction. Let me enumerate some of these:— among horses we have glanders, farcy, 
malignant disease of the genitals, horse-pox, strangles, influenza, the different forms of 
acariasis (mange) from Sarcoptes equi, S. mutans, dermatodectes, and dermatophagus, 
ringworm in its various forms,—tricophyton, achorion, microsporon and odium—pont- 
astomata in the nasal chambers, strongyli in the lungs and lower air passages, the oxy- 
urida and sclerostomata in the bowels, and in the case of the latter in the blood-vessels 
as well:— Among Cattle are cowpox, aphthous fever, rinderpest, lung fever, Texan fever, 
enzootic abortion, lung worms, echinococcus, cysticercus mediocan ellata, intestinal 
round and tape worms such as live also in sheep, flukes, mange from dermatodectes 
and dermatophagus, and ring-worm in its different forms:— in sheep are sheep-pox, 
aphthous fever, rinderpest, foot-rot, flukes, cysticercus, lungworms, coenurus cerebralis, 
taenia dentata, intestinal round worms—mainly Strongylus contortus, S. filicollis, ascaris 
ovis and tricocephalus affinis,—pentastomata in the mesenteric glands, and the 
different forms of scab from the presence of the various acari:— in Hogs are swine¬ 
pox, intestinal fever, aphthous fever, lung worms, echinorynchus, stephanurus, strongylus 
gigas, trichina, tricocephalus crenatus, ascaris suis, echinococcus, cysticercus cellulosa 
and sarcoptic mange:— in Dogs are canine distemper, rabies, dog-pox, Taenia coenurus 
T. echinococcus, T. marginata, pentastoma, mange and ring-worm:— in Chickens are 
gapes, dysentery, mange, ring-worm, &c.; finally all are subject to malignant anthrax, 
malignant cholera and tuberculosis. 
Such are the main but by no means the whole of the communicable diseases of 
the domestic animals. Is it not of the highest importance that the public, and especially 
the medical public, and the legislators should be apprised of these many unsuspected 
sources of national suffering and loss ? The present absence of governmental protec¬ 
tion against these diseases and their consequences, is only to be excused on the ground 
of the blank ignorance of our legislative assemblies. When a bill for the prevention of 
contagious diseases in animals was recently brought into the N. Y. Legislature, an hon¬ 
orable member, and I regret to say, a physician, affirmed most positively that there was 
no such thing as contagious pleuro-pneumonia, and by his vehemence and the credit 
