VETERINARY SURGERY. JQl 



for thoir education, and thus giving these young men a chance, 

 they will acquire their profession and settle down in Maine ; will 

 become your neighbors and friends — men in whose skilled hands 

 you can safely trust the lives of your sick animals — men from 

 whom you may learn how to keep those animals well, and how to 

 make them thrive best. 



Let me once more enforce the necessity for young farmers to be 

 instructed upon the structure of animals. Even among horsemen 

 the ignorance is great in respect to the structure of the horse. 

 One man who had owned and handled horses for years, laughed 

 at a friend of mine for his ignorance of the anatomy of the foot 

 of the horse. My friend told him there was but one bone — the 

 pastern bone — extending from the leg joint and widening in the 

 hollow of the hoof. He at once made the assertion, and believed 

 it too, that at that part of the ankle there were a number of small 

 bones. Now, in that part of the leg many horses are lame, and if 

 a man does not know how the bones are placed, or how many 

 there are, how can he intelligently doctor the lameness ? Instead 

 of curing may he not aggravate the trouble ? 



I believe that the farmers of Maine are beginning to realize the 

 importance of such a calling. I am well aware the time has been 

 when this department of the healing art was not sought for by the 

 people at large, as it is to-day. I believe our intelligent farmers 

 feel, both in a sanitary and a financial point of view, the need of 

 such a knowledge. There is a large amount of capital invested 

 in live stock in this State, which needs the better security which 

 such a knowledge would give it. I believe the only way to guard 

 ourselves against the financial losses in this direction, from the 

 invasion of diseases, is to educate the people in the general prin- 

 ciples of veterinary science. The spread of contagious diseases 

 throughout the country should therefore receive attention at every 

 hand, and thus be made a leading feature in agricultural education. 



Dr. Loring says: "In discussing the questions which come 

 before an assembly of farmers, it is highly important that vague 

 theories should be avoided, and crude speculations should be laid 

 aside, and that the opinions expressed should be based upon the 

 best experience or upon the most intelligent understanding of well 

 established theories. The investigation of unimportant matters, 

 the attempts to reply to unnecessary questions, the desire to fix 

 and establish a traditional notion, have occupied too much time 

 and labor of the agricultural student, and have served to confuse 



