INTRODUCTORY LECTURE 



TO 



A COURSE OF LECTURES 



UPON 



COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, 



AND 



THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



BY JAMES MEASE, M. D. 

 DELIVERED JVOVEMBER 3, 1813. 



Gentiemen, 



A conviction of the great necessity at present of a course 

 of lectures upon Compakative Anatomy, and the Diseases 

 of Domestic Animais, has induced me to undertake to de- 

 liver them. I had indeed contemplated a course on the last 

 subject, several years since, hut Avas prevented from com- 

 mencing it, hy circumstances that no longer exist. The dif- 

 fusion of knowledge upon the subject of my intended course, 

 although at all times desirable, from mere motives of huma- 

 nity, as connected with the means of increasing the comfort 

 of a class of animals over which Providence has made us 

 masters, who labour for us, feed, and clothe us ; is particu- 

 larly important, if we reflect upon the value of some of those 

 animals at the present time, when a laudable spirit of im- 

 provement induces agricultural gentlemen to stock their 

 farms at a considerable expense, with foreign breeds, or to 

 take great pains in originating new stock at home, for the 

 purpose of increasing the quantity and quality of flesh, milk, 

 or fleece ; and w hen the employment of a large body of ca- 



VOli. III. c 



