SECRETARY'S REPORT. H 



part of creation and prove so destructive to the prosperity of the aojrieulturist. 

 Scarcely a class of diseases can be mentioned among animals of winch a 

 parallel example cannot be found among plants. As (ar back as we can pene- 

 trate the dim vista of the past we see age after age that whenever blight and 

 mildew destroyed the crops of the field, then famine, plague and ptstilence 

 followed quii!kly in their course, and only stayed their deadly ravages amoag 

 mankind when the population had been so much reduced that the scanty food 

 could support the survivors. 



Diseases in grain, esculent vegetahles and roots, poison and diminish that 

 food to which we are so largely indehtfd fur health and life. And in our own 

 gardens and fields, a year never pat-ses during which more or less irijury is not 

 inflicted upon our cultivated crops; yet until recently this subject has nut been 

 investigated with that diligence and zeal commensurate with its importance. 



For many years, the keenest intellects have studied human disease. They 

 have accumulated a vast magazine of facts, both those that realiy occur m 

 health, and those that occnr in disease, and from these facts they have estab- 

 lished the principles of that si^ience that treats of the functions of life, or 

 physiology ; and the principles of the doctrine of diseases, with their causes, 

 eff'cts and differences, or pathology, and then they have proceeded to their 

 rational treatment by the use of remedial agents, preventive and curative. 

 Thus scientific men, by the judicious use of medicine, have materially short- 

 ened the duration of disease and prolonged human life, and may reasonably 

 be expected to make still further progress in future. They already possess 

 the ability to cure nearlv every kind of active inflammation, which, without 

 treatment would tend to destroy life. Even in chronic diseases, for which no 

 cure has been discovered, they can mitigate the anguish of the patient, and 

 prolong his existence. The small-pox, wliich once decimated ail ranks, from 

 the monarch to the beggar, by vacciniition and a more judicious management, 

 has been deprived of its terrors, and now rarely proves fatal. 



During tiie existence of the Roman Empire, when the practice of medicine 

 by quacks was based on isolated facts, the majoiity of which were fallacious, 

 the average duration of human life was ten years less than at the present 

 time. This shows what has been aceomplislied l)y careful research, mure ac- 

 curate knowledge, more practical skill. The same careful study of all the 

 laws which regulate the functions of vegetahles in health ; the same attentive 

 observation of those changes and modifications which result in disease and 

 deatli ; the same persevering endeavor to trace effects and differences to their 

 producing causes, will conduce to the same rational and successful treatment. 

 For there is a close similarity between tlie vital structures and phenomena of 

 plants and animals. Both have the same chemical constituents. "The same 

 acids, alkalies, earths and metals are components of both. They contain in 

 common, sugar, mucus, jelly, coloring and other principles, gluten or albu- 

 men, fibrin, oils, resins and extractives." 



The functions of animals are also closely analogous. Only in the one class 

 they are more complicated, in the other more simple. Animals take their 

 food by t:ie agency of the mouth, digest, select and retain what is suitable for 

 their nourishment. This in a liquid form, is mingled with the blood which 

 constitutes the very fountain of life. The vital fluid travels on to the lungs, 

 where it comes in contact with the air, the oxygen of which unites with it, it 

 gives out carbonic acid gas and vapor, and its color is changed from dark 

 purple to bright vermillion. By tiiis chemical union tlie blood ig heated and 

 purified, and prepared to supply warmth and nourishment to all parts of the 

 body. By the heart it is then sent by one set of tubes, the arteries and capil- 

 laries, and returned by the veins. As it circulates it takes up the worn-out 

 material to be afterwards eliminated from the system, and at the same time 

 repairs the waste. 



In health no mistake is ever made. From one complex fluid, each and 

 every part has the power to make selection, according to its wants, and con- 

 struct substances the most dissimilar in properties and characteristics. 



