able result of the infection of our western stock-runs will be the infection of our eastern States throughout, and a yearly loss which can easily be estimated by the corresponding loss in Great Britain, from the same disease, since its importation, in 1842. Since that time Great Britain has lost in deaths alone, from this malady, on an average, $15,000,000 per annum. This, it will be remembered, is on a stock of six million head, from which fall to be deducted the great herds of black cattle bred in the highlands of Scotland, which have hitherto escaped infection, owing to the absence of the importation of strange beasts into their midst. Taking the same ratio, without this deduction, for our twenty-eight million head of cattle, our general infection would lay us under tribute to the extent of $60,000,000 per annum. Or if our herds increase at their present rate, our losses, by the end of the century, would amount to a yearly total of at least $120,000,000. This it is the province of veterinary science to save to the country, by crushing out this most insidious and fatal malady, while it is still confined to the enclosed farms of our eastern States. At present this can easily be accomplished by sound and rigidly enforced veterinary sanitary laws. If the United States decline to avail of these, the sad truth of the above mentioned representations will burst upon them with overwhelming force on some, perhaps, not distant day, and they will vainly turn for help to the long neglected science of veterinary medicine, at a time when it can no longer offer a perfect protection.

We have just had an instructive instance of the disastrous results of neglecting the warnings of science in the case of the invasion of the potato beetle. Professor Riley warned the nation of the great losses that would result from its eastward progress, and showed how, by the outlay of a few thousands, it might be prevented from crossing the Mississippi. Instead of heeding his advice, the Missouri government, in a fit of blind retrenchment, abolished his office of State Entomologist, thereby effecting an immediate saving of $3,000 a year, while the potato beetles, allowed to cross the river, at five separate points only, have laid the eastern States under a contribution estimated at $100,000,000 per annum.

Even more disastrous would be the acclimatization of the lung fever in the western States and Territories. Hence the urgent necessity that the country should foster veterinary sanitary science, and avail of it to obviate such a catastrophe. So, too, with regard to other animal plagues, indigeneous and foreign. But to accomplish this in the best and cheapest manner, in a thinly peopled country like the United States, we must have the new style of practitioner, of human and veterinary medicine, and hence the surpassing importance of medical schools in which both will be taught in the most thorough manner. It speaks well for the advanced and far seeing views of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, that they are the first among American institutions of learning to have recognized the importance of this alliance between the two sister professions of medicine, and it is to be hoped that the Legislature will prove themselves equally

liberal and true to the best interests of the country in providing the means for a firm and permanent consummation of the union.

JAMES LAW, F. R. C. V. S.,

Professor of Veterinary Science, Cornell University.

Doctor Dickie, of Doylestown, Pa., kindly consented to write the following paper which sets forth the necessity of scientific investigation of the diseases of our poultry.

Our Poultry Interests.

Poultry keeping, as a source of food supply, is insensibly but surely taking rank among the productive industries of our country. In popular estimation, poultry and egg production are looked upon as a quite subsidiary interest, confined almost exclusively to the women folk and children of the farmer's household. Such a view might have been approximately correct twenty years ago, as it was of cheese making, but it is not so at present. Poultry production and cheese production have both become skilled industries. Many people are surprised at the rapid growth in the production of cheese as an article of commerce. We know something about the cheese trade, because cheese is an article of export and figures in the reports of boards of trade and the produce exchange. But the poultry and egg trade has not got that far yet, and the public has no means of knowing anything about the extent and value of these products. Only those who know something of the ins and outs of the poultry and egg business can form anything approximating a correct estimate of its amount and value. One is perfectly safe, however, in saying that, like the cheese industry, the poultry industry of the nation is no longer confined to the hands of the dairymaids and children.

In all the eastern and middle States poultry keeping is largely pursued, while the industry is rapidly growing in the west and south. Those whose business interests familiarize them with the condition and extent of the poultry and egg trade understand and appreciate its importance, while the masses who consume the products of our poultry yards have no idea of it whatever.

Poultry keeping is quite a domestic industry, and is susceptible of general diffusion. It is not confined to the farm at all, but on the contrary, the dwellers in villages and towns now furnish more poultry and eggs to our markets than were supplied by our whole farming population a quarter of a century ago. In the eastern and middle States every body keeps poultry who has room enough for it. The business is capable of almost unlimited extension, because, on a small scale, but little capital is required, and the expense of keeping the fowls is not great, while the profit is worth looking after, and in the rural villages and districts is a great help towards supporting a laborer or mechanic. Fresh eggs are always exchangable at the country or village store for groceries and dry goods, and millions of dozens of them are thus disposed of by their producers every year, while

at almost every railroad station east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio rivers, dealers are found who will pay cash for good poultry, dead or alive.

While, therefore, it may readily be shown that the poultry interests of the nation, domestic and apparently insignificant as they may appear, are yet quite important, and are destined to advance with our civilization and our facilities for more extended and intimate commercial relations with Europe. We hear much about the shipments of fresh beef to Europe, and of the stimulating effect it has, or will have, upon cattle raising; but we hear nothing, as yet, about the shipments of dressed poultry, which are quietly going on, with fair prospects of being largely increased within the next few years. As soon as the poultry keepers of the Delaware valley have a surplus, they will find an outlet for many tons of poultry, particularly turkeys and capons, by way of the American steamship line, from Philadelphia.

The main drawback to a largely increased poultry production is presented in the diseases and ailments which attack the stock. Thousands of those engaged in poultry keeping seem to know little or nothing about the requirements of the business, in respect to proper management and wholesome sanitary regulations. An inevitable result of this ignorance and mismanagement is seen in the prevalence of diseases in the poultry yard. Many millions of dollars worth of poultry are annually lost from this cause. It would probably be within the limits of the truth to say that one half of all the chicks hatched in the country are every year carried off by some of the ailments and diseases which are so prevalent. This is a frightful statement, but it is not an exaggeration. The public needs authoritative instruction in proper methods of poultry management; but, unfortunately, scientific men either have not the time or lack the inclination to investigate the diseases of domestic fowls. Poultry keepers themselves are incompetent to do it; the masses of them are not educated people, and have but vague ideas of scientific methods or therapeutic applications. Assistance then must come from a different quarter, and science must be invoked to assist the poultry keeper.

The prevailing ailments and diseases attacking poultry may be summed up under the following heads:

I. Parasites.-Lice and gapes.

II. Catarrhal affections.-Roup in all its various phases.

III. Diphtherite.-A disease affecting the mouth and throat, giving rise to an exudation on the surface of the mucous membrane.

IV. Septicemia.-"Chicken disease," poultry cholera, attacks gallinacae indiscriminately; but does not effect water-fowl.

V. Affections of the alimentary canal.-Dysentery, diarrhoea, indigestion, "crop bound," canker, &c.

VI. Affections of the nervous system.-Leg-weakness, staggers, vertigo,

apoplexy, &c.