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investigation conducted by competent scientific men, with ample means at theii disposal 
for experimental research, should be instituted by the General Government, by a State 
or by a Dairymen’s Convention. No such investigation has to my knowledge been 
placed in the hands of Veterinarians, and no committee of any kind has been empow¬ 
ered to resort to experiment. 
There is a wide spread feeling that such investigation is the duty of the State Agri¬ 
cultural Colleges through their Veterinary Chairs, but this argues a most imperfect appre¬ 
hension of the subject. All such colleges are already suffering from want of means to 
carry on their course of instruction, and not one has the money to spare for the purchase 
and maintenance of experimental animals and stables, undei the caieful supervision 
necessary for scientific accuracy. Stockowners may as well be told that there is no 
royal road to scientific discovery, but that the ascertaining of facts experimentally under 
conditions carefully adjusted to exclude all conceivable sources of fallacy, is the one 
mode which is in keeping with the demands of modern science. It is the one too which 
promises the best results, at the smallest pecuniary outlay, however expensive the 
preliminary outlay may appear. Without this, there is too much of the post hoc , ergo 
propter hoc in our supposed discoveries, and we will be constantly reminded that they 
are but partial truths after all, as subsequent occurrences in different attending condi¬ 
tions, will continue to invalidate their supposed primary significance. Such an investiga - 
tion to be at once economical and full of promise, should be conducted by those who are 
alike intimately acquainted with scientific methods, and with the present state of veter¬ 
inary pathology; as they must otherwise be much less prompt and certain in.their results 
and liable to far more unexpected drawbacks, and fallacious conclusions. While it 
must be confessed that many valuable discoveries have been made by accident or intui¬ 
tion, the experimental mode alone is scientific, and will place the results on a solid 
and enduring foundation. Let then the necessary means be provided and veterinarians 
will not be wanting in the will, nor devotion necessary to conduct the investigation. 
Contagions Foot-rot in Sheep may be placed in the same category with abortion. 
In some States the destruction caused by this disease has become enormous. A few 
years ago it was so prevalent in Iowa that sheep became almost worthless, and many 
flock-masters were ready to part with their property on almost any terms. Those flocks 
only escaped which were secluded in the home pastures and kept off the ground on 
which the diseased had been. Even now, after the lapse of six years from the definite 
extinction of the malady, its influence is seriously felt in the great diminution of flocks 
within the area of former infection. Such an affection is a legitimate subject of leg¬ 
islative control, though from the comparatively fixed nature of its contagion it only 
spreads under given and easy avoidable conditions. 
Tuberculosis must now be accepted as a communicable disease, conveyable by in¬ 
oculation or the ingestion of the tubercle. I will not try your patience by recounting 
the oroofs of this, but taking these for granted, will merely indicate the extieme dangei 
.to our most valuable herds from the introduction of a tuberculous animal—and many of 
‘our most highly prized races are already infected—and the further danger to man from 
eating the underdone meat or even drinking the warm milk of some of these cows. The 
momentous interests involved in this question are almost incalculable. 1 he conceiv¬ 
able destruction of infancy and wasting of manhood, may well demand a prompt 
and crucial investigation, and unless the transmission of the disease by the channels just 
mentioned is negatived, the further adoption of the most stringent measures for the 
restriction of the malady, and the preservation of the community is imperative. 
