DERIVATION AND MEANING. 29 



The animal we most regard in our investigations is the horse 

 — the most noble^ the most useful_, the most valuable of all 

 dumb creatures. When deprived of his services, we most 

 feel the worth of them ; and our desire to have our servant 

 restored to usefulness is, with many, exceeded only by our 

 anxiety to raise our fellow-beings from the bed of affliction. 



The groundwork of the science of veterinary medicine 

 consists in a knowledge of zoology, or the natural history 

 . and habits of the animal ; of anatomy, or the construction of 

 the various parts of his body; oi physiology, or the laws of 

 living action ; and of so much insight into chemistry and 

 botany, as will enable us to understand the composition of 

 the several substances employed for the cure of his diseases. 



Derivation and Meaning or Disease. — That which 

 we are in the habit of calling by the names of disorder, 

 distemper, malady, sickness, lameness, &c., in medical 

 phraseology is designated disease. The word is a compound 

 of dis and ease, and, literally, signifies nothing more than 

 the privation of ease ; the same as dis-order implies a cessa- 

 tion of order. Simple as this analysis of the term may 

 appear, yet, to give what the schools call a definition, has 

 proved a perplexing task. To say disease consists in the 

 absence of health, is to offer a solution of no value, unless 

 accompanied with one of what health itself consists in. 



Galen defined disease to be a state in which the functions 

 are disordered; and Broussais has copied him, in saying 

 that disease is the result of irregularity of function. Dr. 

 Brown^s definition is, a lesion of irritability. Great dis- 

 ordered function, however, may exist without disease, as in 

 the cases of parturition, and other disturbances, &c. ; and 

 there are many diseases in which no disordered function is 

 apparent. 



MM. Roche and Sanson have approached nearer truth, in 

 saying that disease is an alteration of structure producing 

 inconvenience or obstacle to the exercise of function. 

 Though structure is commonly altered, are there not several 

 diseases consisting in alteration of circulating fluids? — in 

 displacement of organ or of organs without change in their 



