Introduction. xxxi 



has the chief object of this science received much consideration. The 

 rare instances in which animals can be seen by the Veterinary Surgeon 

 in the earliest stages of disease, — when it would prove most amenable to 

 medical treatment, — due to the incapacity of those who have the care of 

 them to recognize these early periods j the fact that animals cannot, ex- 

 cept in a negative way, tell their wrongs or explain their sensations ; the 

 absence of those accessories and comforts of the sick-room which cannot 

 be called in to ameliorate their condition j the violence or stupor, as 

 well as the structural arrangements and position, of the plague-stricken 

 creatures ; the many obstacles to their complete segregation when the 

 malady is of a contagious character j the slender means generally af- 

 forded for attending to recommendations and injunctions ; and the 

 oftentimes intractable nature of general diseases, as well as the utilitarian 

 influences spoken of above 3 — all these, in the majority of instances, 

 militate against the adoption of curative measures, and add a thousand- 

 fold to the value of those which have the prevention of disease for their 

 object. And these considerations demand that the whole aim and skill 

 of the comparative pathologist should be employed not in curing, but 

 in preventing disease. 



That this object has in this country formed but an insignificant 

 element in medical teaching, is amply illustrated in the history of the 

 cattle epizooty of 1865, when this easily suppressed scourge was allowed 

 to spread over the land through the silly endeavour to exorcise it 

 by pills, potions, and fantastic nostrums prescribed by men who neither 

 knew the organization of the animal nor the nature of the malady tor 

 which they were prescribing, and this despite the urgent remon- 

 strances of those who had studied veterinary science. 



To the comparative pathologist, the history and investigation of 

 animal plagues will ever be of paramount interest, as they must always 

 demand his most earnest study. To discover their atfinities in the 

 various species of animals brought under the dominion of man, to 

 ascertain all that can be learned of their nature and the laws by which 

 they are governed, as well as to elucidate the causes which originate 

 them, and their mode of propagation, is no light task ; but it is only 

 by this study that he can reasonably hope to resist them with success. 



Besides this, their investigation is a most attractive occupation for 

 the enlightened mind, apart from its practical bearing. An introduction 

 is afforded to subjects of the mightiest importance in the physical and 

 organic worlds j and the wonderful relationship which exists between 

 life and the elements surrounding it — the reciprocal influence of these, 

 and the connection between cause and efl'ect • — are the most in- 



