25 
to diffuse disease and death in their most loathsome forms to man and beast. Against 
this we have no legal protection—no means of putting a stop to such immoral, inhuman, 
homicidal practices. Redress is only to be sought and obtained after the injury has 
been sustained. Is such a state of things worthy of an enlightened community, boast¬ 
ing of the universal education, and intelligence of its citizens, of its advanced position 
in the arts and sciences, of its century of personal freedom, and the maintenance of 
human rights, of its large hearted philanthrophy and its Christian civilization ? 
Canine madness will be universally relegated to the same category. What if it 
should be found that a Hungarian plant is a specific in the majority of cases, whatman 
in his senses would preserve even for a day a dog that is unquestionably mad, with even 
the remote probability of infecting man with this terrible disorder? The same consider¬ 
ation would demand the strictest supervision of all dogs, in all localities, and the general 
diffusion of information on the preliminary symptoms of rabies. 
To be classed with these is malignant anthrax to which all domestic animals are 
liable, and which so frequently and fatally infects the human being himself. It is 
greatly to be desired that all malarious and unhealthy regions should be drained and 
rendered salubrious, but the wish is vain, in the present state of the nation. Never¬ 
theless much may be done in the way of instructing stockowners how to avoid such 
places in the more dangerous seasons, when heat and dryness have induced decay to 
an unusual depth in the soil, when the blood of the animals is loaded with excess of 
organic matter, whether plastic or excrementitious, and when the excessive alternations 
of temperature in day and night, tend to disturb the balance of function, and lay the 
system open to disease. They must be instructed to avoid as far as possible all contact 
with the skins, blood, or other products of the victims of the malady, and to employ 
disinfectants after every inevitable contact. Above all should the places where the sick 
had been, the graves, &c. be thoroughly disinfected under professional supervision. 
Last year it was my experience to see in a single outbreak of malignant anthrax the 
communication of the disease to three men, in two of whom it would probably have 
proved fatal, but for the prompt and thorough treatment resorted to by the surgeon 
whom they consulted. Other isolated cases are continually occurring, and though we 
do not repeat the experience of Egypt in the time of Moses when boils and blains cut off 
man and beast, nor of the agriculturally undeveloped countries of Europe in the middle 
ages, when the human and brute populations alike were decimated by these diseases, 
nor that of St. Domingo where 1400 persons perished in six weeks, in the last century, 
nor even that of the flat swampy provinces of Russia, where the Siberian Boil Plague 
yearly claims its hecatombs of victims, yet we have our scores of human victims year¬ 
ly, and we have the poison preserved in fodder, pastures, yards and buildings to break 
out with destructive effects at some future period. 
Yearly we suffer untold losses in various states from enzootic abortion in cows. Herds, 
and whole counties almost, are rendered comparatively useless or unremunerative, and 
this continues from year to year, until the malady has manifestly exhausted itself, after 
which the formerly affected animals are spared, but there is no extinction of the disease, 
which meanwhile.shows itself in all newly purchased or young animals that have not 
already suffered. It will be retorted that our science has- no provision for the extinc¬ 
tion of this disease. It is true that no investigation has been successful in laying bare 
the secret of the malady, and nearly all theories, whether of ergotism, early breeding, 
excessive milking, exhaustion of the soil, urinary disorder, &c. have been in turn dis¬ 
proved by the inexorable logic of facts, yet the need is all the greater, that a thorough 
