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no visible result. That is not the way things work 

 in this world. Words are spoken, and seem to fall 

 dead ; still, if they are words of wisdom, they must 

 tell, and in fifty years ideas are not where they 

 would have been if they had not been spoken. 

 Disease in animals is principally a pocket affair, and 

 therefore, only of limited importance. For this 

 reason it cannot be wondered at that the generality 

 of people having something better to do than to 

 think much about the matter, should take their no- 

 tions from those whose business it is, namely, the 

 veterinary surgeons. Neither can it be wondered 

 at that these men, to save themselves the futility of 

 trying to think about the matter, should adopt the 

 notions entertained by the heads of their profession. 

 In fact, they are quite right to do so; but the result 

 of all this is the predicament our ideas upon these 

 subjects are now in. 



I have perused the third and last Report of the 

 Commissioners appointed to investigate matters con- 

 nected with the Cattle Plague. Interesting* as it is, 

 I was rather disappointed to find the instruction 

 contained in it lessened to me by my having already 

 read it before ; first in various letters communicated 

 many months ago, by Professors Gamgee and 

 Symonds to the periodical press, and afterwards 

 in the published accounts (which I have lately had 

 the pleasure of perusing) of the proceedings of the 

 Grand International Veterinary Congresses at Ham- 

 burg- and Vienna. The only thing in this third report 



