74 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



INFECTION. 



Anthrax {Carbuncle). 



Anthrax is the disease of all the diseases strictly due to germ-life 

 which is best understood by scientists. Before considering it, how- 

 ever, we desire to introduce some general remarks, and then to con- 

 sider the subject of germ-infection, though in a very general manner. 



The word infectlo means to pollute. 



The subject of infection is one of the most theoretic connected 

 with the study of medicine. 



To theorize does not mean to dream of things possible, as the 

 major part of the people and too many professionals seem to think. 

 To be called a theorist, if one is in reality such, is by no means a 

 disgrace ; on the contrary, it is the highest honor that can be given. 

 It means, truly, that one is a man capable of reasoning, both by in- 

 duction and deduction. To be called a practical man means that 

 you know nothing but routine practice, or what one has inherited 

 from teachers and fathers, and that we are incapable of reasoning. 

 Theory is the connecting link, the hypothetical bridge of explanation 

 between two known facts. 



These facts are, first, that something takes place; second, the 

 phenomena by which you recognize that something has taken place. 

 The empiric is satisfied with this knowledge. It is enough for him 

 that a horse has colic, and that certain symptoms indicate it, and 

 that in general a dose of a certain medicine will cure it. This is 

 being practical. 



To theorize means to be able to think, and to think logically and 

 well — to be able to trace the connection between cause and effect. 

 If there is any disgrace in this, then those who are called theorists 

 are generally in most honorable company. 



The trouble with our profession is and has been that it has never 

 yet produced a great thinker. Not one of the men whose names 

 you have been taught to revere as great among veterinarians have 

 ever been great thinkers. Even human medicine has been noto- 

 riously wanting in this regard. 



Good thinkers are scarce at best. The Bacons, Goethes, Des- 

 cartes, Humes, and Franklins of this world are always phenomenal. 

 The great practitioners have been numerous ; the great thinkers in 

 medicine can be counted upon the fingers of one hand. They are 

 the men who have shaped the course of medicine for years after 

 their death, and frequently during their lives. 



