206 GLANDERS 



Truly might I quote from that beautiful poem some of us 

 Avere taught to lisp in our cliildhood, — 



" My cattle died, and blighted was my corn." 



When I look back to this sad calamity that accom- 

 plished the ruin from which I never recovered, and that 

 altogether led to the change in my position that after- 

 wards followed, I am led to ask, " How is it that little or 

 no advance or improvement has been made in the 

 veterinary art ? While we read of discoveries in other 

 sciences, some of which are made patent to our senses, we 

 find none in Pathology that would lead to the successful 

 treatment of a disease which has proved most destructive 

 to the noblest and most useful animal in the creation, 

 although it has excited the study and attention of first- 

 rate practitioners, both here and on the continent, for 

 now more than 100 years. Nay, even the seat of the 

 disease has never been properly defined — stomach, lungs, 

 and head, have each been pronounced as such, by 

 difi'erent professors of this most useful art ; but dissection 

 after dissection has failed to trace the source of this bane 

 to the animal's existence. 



In the absence of all cure, then, and in despair of 

 finding any antidote, how necessary is it to use every 

 precaution to guard against its appearance ; and this I 

 cannot more forcibly recommend than in the words of a dis- 

 tinguished and most excellent naval officer,^ whose custom 

 it was to hang on his cabin- door, every night before 

 retiring to rest, his own Avritten instructions for the 

 guidance of the officer of the w\atch. I need not say they 



' The late Admiral Sir Joseph Sidney Yorke. 



