734 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 
who obtains his microscopical knowledge second-hand. The 
great pathologist, Virchow, whose name amongst us is one 
to conjure with, seems to be of the same opinion. If so, 
it is very curious, and we have been going to such trouble 
in Pasteaurising milk and condemning tuberculous carcases 
for nothing. As regards the latter, some alteration in the 
law is most certainly required. In an address delivered in 
another place, I called attention to this injustice, and I 
wish to emphasise it again. It seems that when a beast is 
condemned as unfit for food, having been bought at auction 
in the usual manner, the cost falls on the butcher instead 
of the grazier, which is striking at the top of the tree, in- 
stead of at the root. If we wish our herds to be clean and 
healthy, the pastoralist should recognise that he would 
have to bear the expense of any loss, and that it would 
pay him better to have his cattle clean and regularly 
inoculated, than to send them to market unfit for consump- 
tion. 
Gentlemen, I am afraid I have been discursive, but as 
I said, the nature of the subject has prevented me from 
concentrating my hygienic knowledge. As I said before, 
these are but a few ideas that have struck me as I com- 
sidered what I should write. I look upon this Section as 
certainly the most useful in social science. These meetings 
have effected an enormous amount of good in Great 
Britain. Who can forget the fcetid cesspit, and the 
typhoid and diphtheria of former times. Sitting here, we 
smile at such things now, and yet, with a few exceptions, 
you may visit any farm-yard in the country districts and 
you will find all these foci just as prominent, just as com- 
mon, as they were in the great cities twenty years ago. 
Hence, the benefit that arises from these meetings. It is 
not so much that we learn, but that the general public are 
informed, and yet in teaching, we also learn according to 
the proverb-—qui docet discet. 
