ABSTRACT OF THE ADDRESS. 



Dr. Noah Cressy, tlie State Veterinary Surgeon of Connecticut, 

 and no-.v tbe Professor of Veterinary Science in the Agricultural 

 College, addresssd the society, spealiiag at some length on the " Im- 

 portance of Veterinary Education " among the farmers. He con- 

 sidered the subject under three different aspects. First, its impor- 

 tance as an element of mental discipline. In this respect he alluded 

 to the relations between man and the lower orders of animals, and 

 said tiiat all the rcrfebrates so called, were built upon the same gen- 

 eral plan of structure, thus by studying any one of these in detail, 

 we could not fail to comprehend the law, which governed the or- 

 ganizations and developments of others. All were possessed with 

 a backbone, but the number of fragments or peices of which ii is 

 composed, varies in different species ; so with thest; diverging ap- 

 pendages which are called fins, flippers, legs, wings and arms, ac- 

 cording to the various purj^oses to which they were applied. The 

 hand of man, though used in a dii'ferent way and far more exten- 

 sively in its range of application, than the forward foot of the hog, 

 yet it is composed of the same number of bones, precisely, with the 

 exception of those of the thumb. He spoke of the foot of the 

 horse, which answei's to the middle finger of the human hand, and 

 said that these little bones in the back of the horses leg, which oa 

 account of their shape were known as "splints" actiially bare 

 toes in a fossil representative of the equine race. And thus it i>3 ba- 

 lieved by many naturalists that the domestic horse has descended 

 from this three toed animal, which on account of its close resem- 

 blance has been called the hipparion, or fossil pony, so to speak, of 

 which seventeen species have been found in North Aiaerica. 

 Hence comparative anatomy becomes a veiy useful and interest- 

 ing branch of study, and should be taught in all of our agricultural 

 colleges, as a regular branch of instruction. This would discipline 

 the mind and prepare the pupil for the important study of Veteri- 

 nary medicine. 



In the second place, Professor Cressy referred to his subject 



