ON THE IMPORTANCE OF VETERINARY ART AND SCIENCE. 



BY CAPTAIN J. C. RALSTON, LATE OF BRITISH ARMY, ETC., ETC. 



The vacancy which exists in this country, in relation to that 

 next most important of the domestic sciences, after those of 

 human medicine and surgery — veterinary science — is entire, in 

 any educational or institutional point of view. Its sphere is also 

 very limited, as an understood and practiced art. That this 

 should be so, is a fact equally remarkable and to be deprecated. 

 In the older nations of the world, and in the modern times and 

 countries of Europe, veterinary art and science have been solicit- 

 ously fostered and promoted, by governments, associations and 

 individuals. If its advancement and. cultivation, in those coun- 

 tries, have justly been deemed and found to be of high import 

 and value, how is it that in this great stock-raising country, and 

 among a community already so eminently, and }et more largely 

 so in a progressive sense, engaged and interested in that pursuit, 

 the primary and foundational art and science of mankind — agri- 

 culture—the claims and considerations appertaining to this other, 

 so essential and co-relative science, should continue overlooked 

 and neglected 1 The fact seems at variance with emulative ad- 

 vancement, in all other directions of useful knowledgs. Perhaps, 

 it may be not entirely based on that rapid use and spread, and 

 augmentive pressure of daily life and action, which has so much, 

 heretofore, distinguished the rural progress and practical culture 

 of this country. 



It is, however, suggestive, and bespeaks promise for early con- 

 siderations in favor of the promotion of veterinary science, that 

 on the occasion of a report made by a committee of the Legisla- 

 ture of this State, one or two years now past, on the subject of a 



