Fortunately, chemists have lately paid attention to the advantages of the use of pure salt in various industries, with the result that at least two chemically pure products are now available. The use of these salts should be general for the cure of hides and skins, as they are quite dry, and, therefore, easily spread. As a curing agent, they are much more effective and lasting than common salt. The use of glauber salts (Na_{2} SO_{4}) is recommended by the International Commission for the Preservation, Cure, and Disinfection of Hides and Skins instead of ordinary salt, where the latter is unobtainable. The preparation of a sterilised salt, however, renders its export a practical proposition to almost any part of the world. Although the loss due to bad curing and flaying is very great, it is quite small compared with the damage caused by natural defects. The ravages of disease cause a great wastage of hides and skins, as animals infected with anthrax are immediately destroyed and cremated in all civilised countries, while, in Great Britain, foot-and-mouth disease is kept in check by the same drastic method. In many other countries, the infected cattle are isolated, treated with an antiseptic hoof-and-mouth wash and generally cured, as it is a mild fever which soon runs its course, although it is very contagious. The germ of foot-and-mouth disease has not yet been discovered, for the most powerful microscope fails to reveal its presence, but cattle readily show the complaint, as their hoofs and mouths become covered with swollen lesions. Another kind of fever, known as "tick," was prevalent in the southern part of the United States, but this disease was eventually eliminated by systematically "dipping" the cattle three or four times a year. The cattle "dip" used effectually prevented the ravages of the fly which caused the disease. A similar method has of late years been adopted in South Africa, with the result that cattle-raising in that country is developing rapidly. Anthrax is due to the presence of _bacillus anthracis_, a vegetable organism of Siberian origin. Dry Chinese and Russian hides are specially liable to contain the spores of anthrax, and, as the disease proves fatal to workmen infected by it unless treatment with anti-anthrax serum be given in the early stages, hides and skins from infected areas should be disinfected before shipment. The method proposed by Mr. A. Seymour-Jones, which consists in treating hides with very dilute formic acid and one part of bichloride of mercury in 1,000 of water, and afterwards with a saturated solution of salt solution (.02 per cent.) of bichloride of mercury, seems to be the most effective without damaging the hides. [Illustration: WARBLE FLY (1) Egg, (2) Larva, (3 and 4) Chrysalides, (5) Natural form of fly, (6) Magnified fly.]