tlttC 0A TILE fRADfe STOPPAGE hlLL. 
US 
when important concerns are left in the hands of irresponsible people. To frame 
an act and not to devise the means to enforce that act would be no legislation a>t 
all. 
One reason why the United States have failed to take something like effective 
precautions against preventable diseases among live stock, which have robbed the 
country of millions upon millions of dollars, and proved so injurious to a great por- 
tion of our live stock interests, is the neglect of veterinary science in this country, 
and consequently the backwardness of that science. The spread of diseases among 
live stock in the United States is also facilitated by the totally unchecked trade 
in diseased animals, and by the absence of all proper means to detect and count¬ 
eract disease. During the prevalence of the yellow fever, vigorous efforts were 
made, and even quarantine enforced for the prevention of its spread; but the 
dissemination of diseases among our live stock is not interfered with ; the country 
is wealthy enough not to be destroyed by it, the loss is tolerated, and no attention 
paid to the consequences. The requirement of the age is enlightened action, but 
the course with us has been, and is, an apathy and resignation to fate, only par¬ 
donable because the result of ignorance. American talent and enterprise should 
be turned to good account, and not be obstructed by red-tapeisin and want of con¬ 
fidence in the powers of science. The only condition necessary to insure the 
result is good generalship. The United States stand alone among civilized nations 
for the very little solicitude which the government bestows on the health of our 
domestic quadrupeds. Practical efforts are onty made when too late, or they are 
so ill-directed as to fall short of the good they might accomplish. A proper sys¬ 
tem of collecting statistics of deaths amongst live stock is a necessity. The pub¬ 
lic good demands the adoption of means for obtaining a useful and timely know¬ 
ledge of the prevalence of disease amongst both man and animals. To attend to 
the first and ignore the last affords evidence of a partial view regarding the origin 
and spread of disease in general, which our most enlightened sanitary reformers 
and physicians will at once admit as not in accordance with the broad and philo¬ 
sophical appreciation of facts needed for the full development of sanitary science. 
That it is reckless and ruinous to permit disease to spread without the least 
attempt to check it, must be even more generally acknowledged. The necessary 
object in this, as in all reforms, must be to benefit the public at large with the 
least possible inconvenience and deviation from established practices, consistent 
with the attainment of the desired ends. There is now some prospect that the 
national government will be obliged to pay attention to legislation for the pre¬ 
vention of contagious diseases amongst domestic anitnals. But we are decidedly 
of opinion that, unless a general and effective system of inspection be introduced, 
the legislative enactments will be little more than dead letters. The most effect¬ 
ual mode of preventing the spread of diseases among domestic animals would be 
to appoint eminent experienced veterinarians as inspectors over sections of coun¬ 
try, one for each state, with authority to act under the provisions of law, and 
also in all matters relating to diseased animals and diseased meat. 
At the meeting of the National Agricultural Congress, in Washington, last 
winter, a paper was presented by Dr. Paaren, of Chicago, in which the necessity 
for promoting veterinary science in the United States 'was sufficiently demon¬ 
strated. From the August number of the Animal World , w’liich is the journal of 
