911 it attained a virulence unequaled
before. In that year 3,366,369 cattle, 1,602,927 sheep, 2,555,371 hogs, and
53,674 goats were affected. At that time the total number of cattle, sheep,
swine, and goats in Germany was only 51,319,000, while there were in the
United States 172,572,000, or between three and four times as many. It can
readily be imagined, therefore, what it would mean to the United States if
the disease were to gain the foothold here that it had in Germany, where,
as these figures show, approximately one out of seven of the animals
susceptible to the disease was affected.

The German Government, of course, has not left the disease to itself. It
attempted to control some outbreaks by the method of slaughter, but the
pestilence had gained too much headway and was too firmly established in
too many portions of the country for this method to succeed, and the
slaughter of the infected herds had to be abandoned. It now appears that
there is no hope of getting rid of it until the virus has worn itself out.
As soon as the animals' period of acquired immunity is over and favorable
conditions present themselves, the contagion breaks out with renewed
virulence. It has been impossible to control it by means of quarantines.
One scientist has asserted that unless all the infected farms were
absolutely isolated and the movement, not only of live stock but of
persons, absolutely prohibited, the disease could not be stamped out. Such
a quarantine is, of course, utterly impossible to enforce. In portions of
Germany the farmers, realizing that the disease is inevitable, make haste
to be done with it by exposing their stock deliberately to mild cases in
the hope that this will result in an immediate, mild attack and immunity
for several years thereafter. Such immunity, however, is very uncertain.

Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, on account of their
comparatively isolated positions, have been more successful in keeping out
the disease. The outbreaks in those countries have been more sporadic, and
by resorting to immediate slaughter the authorities have been able to stamp
them out. Great Britain has applied both quarantine and slaughter for many
years, and in an outbreak near Dublin in 1912 measures were adopted which
were even more stringent than any that have been used in the United States.
A British official (Cope) asserted in 1899 that after his country's
experience with this disease it was "more dreaded by t