76 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



Have we produced such a man ? Do our text-books tell us much 

 of the results of disease in our animals ? Some may quote to me the 

 names of Gerhch, Roell, "Williams, Leisering, Bouley, Chauveau, 

 Toussaint, and others, not one of whom deserves to be named with 

 a Rokitansky, a Yirchow, or a Bichat. 



They have done some good experimental work, in a very limited 

 field, and, like one solitary star shining out from a. dark and clouded 

 heaven, loom up all too conspicuously — thankful, as we are, that 

 they have done something to make veterinary medicine worthy of 

 notice. But where is our pathological anatomy ? What is Roell, 

 the best of German works on special pathology ? Has it any original 

 pathological anatomy % It is Rokitansky from beginning to end ; 

 that is, human results transferred, without criticism, to animal con- 

 ditions. Bruckmuller's " Pathological Zootomy," the only work on 

 pathological anatomy of our animals, is another abortion, born too 

 early to have anything in it but adapted Rokitanskyism. 



"What do we know about the microscopic pathological anatomy 

 of the brain, the kidneys, or any single organ of our animals % The 

 macroscopical conditions are fairly described ; the microscopical have 

 been scarcely thought of, but borrowed from human medicine. 



Have we a single contagious disease, the pathological conditions 

 of which have been carefully studied and described by veterinari- 

 ans ? No ! 



Do we know the pathological condition of the lungs, in direct 

 progress from beginning to end, in pleuro-pneumonia ? 



Are our methods of investigation, urine analysis, microscopic 

 technic and examination, any of them, the result of veterinary gen- 

 ius ? No — all, all borrowed ! 



Then why speak of veterinary science ? These things are not 

 written to discourage, but rather to stimulate, for I, for one, believe 

 the day will come when veterinary medicine will have its patholo- 

 gists who shall give the key-note to medical thought, and veterinary 

 pathological anatomists equal to any that human medicine has had, 

 or will ever produce. 



In that day we shall not grope in darkness, but shall see things 

 as they really are. We must learn to observe well, and, above all, 

 to think well, and next to that to be able to express ourselves well. 

 Medicine has its language, and the exact and logical use of language 

 is the best characteristic of an educated man. 



I will illustrate my meaning by a few of the incongruities of 

 medical literature. We frequently read of collapsed conditions 

 of the lungs, by which is meant the dark-blue, airless spots which 



