364 Report of the Governors of the Royal Veterinary College. 
under the ordinary designation of farm-stock, have for the 
most part either a climatic or dietetic origin. Morbid anatomy 
often explains the cause as well as the nature of disease ; and 
be this common or specific, it directs the investigation into 
the right channel for lessening or removing the immediate cause 
of the mischief. 
It may also be affirmed that it \% the especial province of 
veterinary science to be prophylactic, and that in proportion 
to the application of preventive medicine so will be the value 
of the science to the community. 
The experience of the past year has shown, that diseases of 
an ordinary or common type have not been very rife, while, on 
the contrary, some of those which depend on special causes, 
have been more than usually prevalent. 
In the early spring months, splenic apoplexy broke out on 
several farms in the Midland Counties, on which the same disease 
had appeared the previous year. In each instance, nearly every 
animal died after a few hours' illness. Some of the attacks afflicted 
cattle at grass, and others those which were being stall-fed ; and 
neither age, breed, nor system of feeding, appeared to influence 
the attack or the fatality attending it. 
With regard to measures preventive of this disease, it may 
be remarked that these ought to be energetically persevered in, 
as well as had recourse to on the first appearance of the malady. 
The free use of antiseptic agents, especially the sulphite of soda, 
conjoined with chloric and sulphuric ether, and the thorough 
cleansing of the yards, even to carting away the manure, and 
subsequently disinfecting them with carbolic acid, are the pro- 
phylactics which offer the best chance of success. 
Another disease, allied in its pathology to splenic apoplexy, 
viz. " black-leg " (^HcBtnato-sepsis) was unusually rife in some 
districts, especially in those where high-bred animals are kept, 
and where various means are employed to bring them quickly 
forward in condition. 
The fatality of "black-leg" is always great, the disease being 
one of those in which the blood quickly undergoes changes, 
which render it incapable of supporting life. 
It is scarcely necessary to remark that blood-diseases are among 
the most fatal of all maladies, and that they rarely admit of cure. 
Preventives must therefore be looked to, and essentially those, 
which have been previously alluded to, ought to be adopted in 
sudden outbreaks of bl<ack-leg. A periodic exhibition of saline 
aperients, the use of setons, an occasional blood-letting, care in 
selecting the best kind of food, and <lue discretion in its use, 
so as to avoid bringing the animals too quickly into a state of 
plethora, are also effective means of preventing the malady. 
