ould have to defend their constitutional rights against
Congressional invasion; but the fact exists; and the defense should be
made a matter of personal interest and effort not only by every
inventor and manufacturer, but by every honest citizen.

* * * * *

PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

The cattle plague, which is creating so much anxiety throughout the
Eastern States, is a contagious fever, affecting cows chiefly,
characterized by extensive exudations into the respiratory organs, and
attended by a low typhus inflammation of the lungs, plurae, and
bronchia. It has prevailed in Europe for ages, at times developing
into wide-spread scourges, causing incalculable loss. It was imported
into England in 1839, and again three years later; and it was
estimated that within twenty-five years thereafter the losses by
deaths alone in England had amounted to $450,000,000. In 1858 the
disease was carried to Australia by an English cow, and, spreading to
the cattle ranges, almost depopulated them.

In 1843 an infected Dutch cow brought the disease to Brooklyn, where
it has since lingered, slowly spreading among the cattle in Kings and
Queens counties. In 1847 several head of infected English cattle were
imported into New Jersey, and, spreading among a herd of valuable
cattle, made it necessary for them all to be slaughtered, the only
certain method of stamping out the disease. In 1859 four infected cows
were imported into Massachusetts from Holland; the plague spread
rapidly, and was stamped out only by persistent effort, the State
paying for over 1,000 slaughtered cattle. Since 1867 the disease has
not been known there. Meantime the pest had invaded Eastern
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, where it has since prevailed in
isolated localities. The absence of large herds of moving cattle in
these districts, except for speedy slaughter, has prevented the
disease from developing into a general plague.

The recent action of the British Council in forbidding the importation
of American live cattle is likely to prove of inestimable benefit to
this country, in forcibly calling attention to the grave risk that the
presence of the disease on Long Island and elsewhere constantly
entails. Fortunately the drift of the cattle traffic is eastward, and
as yet there has been no propagation of the poison in the great cattle
ranges of the West. Unless summarily arrested, however, the disease
will surely reach thos