NOTHING MORE PRACTICAL THAN SCIENCE. 143 



was more juicy ; and, in a word, we should have taken it to 

 have been a ripe, mature leg of mutton, just fit to eat. 



Prof. Agassiz. May I add another testimony ? I was not 

 present at that meeting, but a friend of mine, the French consul 

 in Boston, who was there, told me that he had tasted of that 

 mutton. Now let me tell you who that man is. The French 

 consul is a gentleman who has been brought up in high life in 

 France, accustomed to all the luxuries of life ; used to dine at 

 the best restaurants of the Palais Royal for years. He knows 

 what eating is, in the best style in which French cookery can 

 produce any article of food, and he told me he never ate better 

 mutton than he ate that day, from that leg, prepared in London 

 in October and eaten in Boston in April. 



I wish to say one word about the methods which have been 

 followed to obtain this result. You will have perceived that 

 they are entirely and exclusively scientific. It is only the most 

 recondite microscopical investigations, only the most advanced 

 chemical knowledge, the most delicate practice in chemical 

 experiments, which have enabled Prof. Gamgee to obtain tliis 

 result. Without this advanced science this result would not 

 have been attained. I make the remark, not that there is any- 

 thing new about it, but because I want, on every occasion that 

 is afforded me, to check this impression which is so general, 

 tliat there is a want of connection between high science and 

 practice, and that high science is not practical. There is 

 nothing more practical than the most advanced science. 



Prof. Gamgee. Will you allow me, as my time here is very 

 short, to say a few words ? I do not like to leave Amherst and 

 to leave this pleasant meeting without reference to the great 

 importance in this country of adopting some means whereby 

 farmers' sons and others may have an opportunity to be taught 

 not only the rudiments or elements of veterinary science, but 

 all that can be known of the diseases of animals. I remember 

 talking, about a year ago, with the head of the old veterinary 

 college in London, with whom I have had many and many a 

 battle, and he looked very black at the idea of a professor of 

 veterinary surgery being appointed at an agricultural college, 

 " because," said he, " you will fill the country with quacks. 

 You will have here a lot of half trained men competing with 

 our own students, and what will be the result ? You will 



