British Food Journal Volume 38 Issue 3 1936

It is a pleasure to write these lines on the Report of Proceedings under the Diseases of Animals Acts for the year 1934. The report is addressed by the Chief Veterinary Officer to the Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. It is a record of most important duties efficiently carried out by the central veterinary authority and the local veterinary authorities in Great Britain during the aforesaid year. Reading “ between the lines ” of the necessarily formal and official wording of the report it is easy to appreciate the extreme complexity of the scientific, administrative and economic problems these various authorities are confronted with in the course of their work. Problems that have to be quickly and satisfactorily dealt with. Admittedly, we owe much to the fact that we are an island, but this fortunate geographical circumstance would not avail us much unless it were inforced by efficient administration and veterinary knowledge kept up to date by research and collaboration with the veterinary world at home and abroad. It is remarked that no cases of cattle plague have been reported since the year 1877 ; no cases of sheep pox—the Peel's pox of an earlier generation of farmers—since 1850 ; no pleuro‐pneumonia since 1898.