JOHN C. GRAY'S ADDRESS. 201 



our duty, by interposing as little as possible in her opera- 

 tions. Napoleon, no mean authority, certainly, in point of 

 intelligence, repeatedly declared, in his last illness, his distrust 

 of all medical prescriptions, as applied to the human subject. 

 " Doctor," said he, to his favorite physician, "no drugs ! You 

 are like a watchmaker, who should endeavor to put a watch in 

 order which he could not open. For once that he could eflfect 

 any good purpose by thrusting in his crooked instruments, he 

 would a thousand times break or derange some part of the hid- 

 den machinery." I shall, certainly, not presume to say, that 

 these remarks of Napoleon admit of no qualification. If we 

 should hesitate to decide where doctors disagree, much more 

 should we hesitate to dogmatize where doctors might unite 

 against us. But if we are greatly in the dark, as to the opera- 

 tions of nature and of disease in the human frame, and I sup- 

 pose no candid physician would deny thus much, far more ob- 

 scure must be our course in treating the diseases of animals, 

 especially as they have no tongues to express their own sensa- 

 tions. Their anatomy is a subject which well deserves the at- 

 tention of the medical faculty, and with which every farmer 

 should be, in some little degree, acquainted. And yet, there are 

 few subjects on which our information, written and unwritten, 

 is so little reliable. The greatest evils which disease often 

 brings upon our cattle, are the useless, aye, and tormenting, 

 prescriptions to which these poor creatures are sometimes com- 

 pelled to submit. Compared with such treatment, utter neg- 

 lect is merciful, and our cattle have certainly a right to ask that 

 nature should have fair play, in working out her own beneficent 

 ends, or in submitting, quietly and peaceably, to inevitable ne- 

 cessity. Some of our most distinguished surgeons, greatly to 

 their honor, have applied themselves, with deep interest, to the 

 study of comparative anatomy, and the Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural Society are now endeavoring, with a good prospect of 

 success, to induce some young physician to devote himself en- 

 tirely to this most important and most neglected pursuit. Still, 

 where we have the option, it is far better to avert disease than 

 to combat it, and much may be done, in this way, by every vig- 

 ilant farmer. " In all, let nature never be forgot," was the pre- 

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