144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



diminish their living. They will not be able to get as many fees 

 as they did before," Now I think you cannot be astonished if 

 I say that I have very little respect for a man who can stand 

 upon such a platform as that, I have had the honor of being 

 at the head of veterinary colleges, and my idea was, that the 

 more I could impress farmers with the notion that I knew more 

 than they did, and that I could come to their rescue in times of 

 difficulty, the more they would fly to me. But apart from that 

 question, we have to practise a profession which is worthless 

 unless we can benefit mankind. The circumstances under 

 which it is to be practised are such that it is impossible for us 

 to be useful in the large majority of instances where disease 

 attacks domestic animals. What is the use of calling in a vet- 

 erinary surgeon and paying five, ten, fifteen or twenty dollars 

 to cure a sick sheep ? What poor young farmer, just starting 

 in life, is able to secure a special investigation of disorders that 

 attack his own flocks or herds and may not exist elsewhere ? 

 It is evident that it is for the interest of any country — it is for 

 the interest of the farming community and of the veterinary 

 profession — that the science and art of preventive medicine 

 should be developed to the highest possible point ; and we are 

 no longer in the maze of ignorance and superstition that per- 

 haps still operates to our disadvantage in North Holland, in 

 Friesland and in some other countries, where the poor people 

 go about with their priests to prevent the cattle plague, telle v- 

 ing that all these diseases are visitations of God for their sins, 

 and that it is useless for them to try to help themselves ; that 

 God sends the calamity upon them, and they must bear it as 

 best they can, as an example to suffering humanity of their 

 great patience and Job-like virtues. We are really growing out 

 of that condition of things ; and, as Prof. Agassiz takes occasion 

 at all times to strike the nail on the head that he wishes should 

 go down, so I have a nail, and my nail is, the idea, which I 

 wash to advance generally, that every case of sickness that oc- 

 curs is preventable. It is true there are inevitable accidents, 

 there are inevitable diseases, which will last to the end of time ; 

 but there are also extinct diseases, which have gone before, 

 and there are many now that should be things of the past, that 

 we have already the means to put among the things that were, 

 and that should be put among the things that were. 



