146 
©fHcial IRepotta 
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE ROYAL 
VETERINARY COLLEGE 
On Investigations carried on for the Royal Agricultural Society 
during the year 1890. 
In presenting this Report to the Council of the Royal Agricultural 
Society, the first duty of the writer is to recognise the importance to 
veterinary science of the munificent grant of 500?. per annum for 
the purpose of founding a Department of Comparative Pathology 
and Bacteriology at tlie College. By the aid of this grant a com- 
pletely furnished laboratory for research has been established, and has 
for some months past been in full operation. The effects of the 
action of the Royal Agricultural Society extend far beyond this im- 
mediate outcome. An impetus has thereby been given to the whole 
system of veterinary teaching, as exhibited in the vastly improved 
accommodation for students and the greatly increased facilities for 
demonstration which the new offices at the College afford. 
As our knowledge of the part played by bacteria in the role of 
nature is extended, we recognise more and more the importance of 
acquiring information about their life-history, and especially so in 
the case of those which must be classed as pathogenic (disease-pro- 
ducing) or septic in their action after they have effected a lodgment 
in the tissues of an animal. The revolution in the practice ot the 
physician, surgeon, and veterinary surgeon during the last twenty 
years will not be so much wondered at if it bo kept in mind that all 
the loss and disappointments caused by the following diseases may be 
traced either directly or indirectly to the actioii of micro-organisms 
or bacteria — viz., tuberculosis, contagious pleuro-pneumonia, diph- 
theria, cholera, swine-fever, rabies, glanders, typhoid fever, anthrax, 
tetanus, leprosy, besides a whole host of others, which at present we 
can only rank as being probably caused by bacteria. 
A concise account of the new Laboratory will be a fitting in-- 
troduction to the Report of the work which has been carried on 
during the past year : — 
The laboratory is situated on the north side of the quadrangle of the 
Royal Veterinary College, and consists of three rooms — viz., the preparation 
room, the microscope room, and a photographic dark room. 
