510 CHAPTER QQ. 



tial to the successful treatment of disease in animals as in man. Good 

 nursing is quite as essential in the treatment of animals as of man. 



Lastly, the Veterinary surgeon, in order to be successful, must be a 

 man of very acute observation among those to whose ailments he may 

 be called to minister. He must be devoted to his art ; he must live 

 much among his patients. It is only by knowing the habits and expres- 

 sion of the various animals in health that he can hope to detect, as it is 

 most important to do, the earlier signs of disease. 



Veterinary science is said by many to be in its infancy. This is hardly 

 correct. The relations between veterinary and human medicine are so 

 close that most of the great strides which have been made in the medical 

 art of late years are applicable to, and have been adopted in veterinary 

 treatment. It is true that the most improved modes of treatment have 

 been worked out by the labour of medical men ; but it is also true that 

 veterinary science has profited as much by those discoveries as the other 

 branch of the healing art. For instance, the violent remedies of blood- 

 letting and depletion, which were common a few years ago in both the 

 medical and veterinary art, have given place to more reasonable treat- 

 ment in both sciences. I shall not elaborate the subject ; it would 

 hardly be interesting to a non-professional audience. 



1038. Prevention of Disease. Sanitary Veterinary Legislation. 



With regard to the prevention of disease Veterinary sanitary science 

 has already done much. It has taught the laws of health concerning 

 domesticated animals ; it has insisted on ventilation, on drainage, on 

 cleanliness, on purity of water, on food adapted to the stomach of each 

 individual animal ; it has, for instance, in our cavalry regiments reduced 

 the loss of horses to the lowest possible scale ; it has reduced the annual 

 casting of horses in a cavalry regiment to 10 per cent., giving an average 

 service of seven to eight years to each horse carrying eighteen stone on 

 his back at a rapid pace over rough ground — a result which may stimu- 

 late the cupidity, if not the humanity, of the veiy large class who use up 

 horses in about two and a half years. 



1039. Cattle Plague or Rinderpest. 



Veterinary sanitary science has done much, and hopes to do more in 

 future, in suppressing or combating those dreadful maladies, such as 

 Cattle Plague, which have caused such heavy losses to the community, 

 and gi-eatly embarrassed the trade in food. But the value of this branch 

 of veterinary science is not yet appreciated as it ought to be. It has 

 often been made a subject of reproach to Veterinary surgeons, that at 

 the time of the cattle plague, otherwise known as Rinderpest, they utterly 

 failed to cure it ; that their only remedy was brutal and unscientific, 

 namely, slaughter. This objection, so commonly made, was, I think, 

 founded on a misconception of the real facts of the case, or, in other 

 words, in ignorance on the part of those who blamed the Veterinary 

 profession. 



