151 IRISH CENTRAL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
fession in contradistinction to the unqualified practitioners and “ soi 
disant ” veterinary surgeons, many of whom we have a high respect 
for, except in reference to their assumption of a title to which they 
have no claim, I deem that I shall best advance the interests of. this 
Association, and the qualified members composing it, by departing 
from the accustomed course, and addressing the few remarks I make 
to the public instead of confining them to strictly professional topics, 
with a view to remove their prejudices, and make more apparent the 
claim that veterinary medicine has to be considered among the 
scientific institutions of this country, along with the sister science 
of human medicine. That veterinary science is second to human 
medicine is due to the fact that human medicine deals with subjects 
whose worth cannot be estimated in money, whilst veterinary medi- 
cine is ever hampered in all its cases with considerations of the 
value of the patient after restoration to health. I do not think our 
critics sufficiently take into consideration the fact that the market 
value of our patients must always limit and cramp the efforts of 
our profession, for we all have heard remarks implying that the 
science itself is unable to treat many analogous diseases to those 
affecting the human subject, and which the sister profession can 
successfully cope with. I hope, however, to be able to show that 
this is an erroneous view so far as it refers to any deficiency in the 
science itself, or want of knowledge on the part of its professors. 
Cases often occur which are quite amenable to treatment, but 
where the owner must be informed by the veterinary adviser, 
as an honest man, that in all probability, for the purposes the ani- 
mal is used, it will not be to his interest to incur the costs of 
attendance and feeding; and the advice of the veterinary surgeon to 
that effect is frequently looked upon as a confession of inability to 
cope with the disease, when in reality he is only endeavouring to 
save the owner’s pocket. There is another most important consi- 
deration ; man as a rule is an intelligent being, and will conform to 
the regulations laid down for his guidance ; he will remain in one 
position, a position which his medical attendant thinks best suited 
to facilitate recovery ; will calmly submit to a course of treatment 
which per se is irritating, and himself secure the careful carrying 
out of such treatment. With the lower animals the case is vastly 
different ; they frequently obstinately oppose your best endeavours 
to secure perfect rest of the whole or part of their bodies. In many 
instances the very apparatus employed to endeavour to bring about 
repose in a portion of the body a limb, for instance, proves a greater 
source of irritation than the original injury, and thus it is that our 
best efforts are oftentimes completely frustrated, and thus the neces- 
sity arises for a longer period of treatment to bring about recovery. 
A man who has suffered from severe inflammation of the lungs is 
not put into training for a race, or other form of exercise demanding 
a great call upon his breathing powers, if he is not sent off to a milder 
climate, so that even in a state of comparative quiescence the lungs are 
but gently called upon for the exercise of their powers. Being a 
reasonable creature, and not subject to the will of another, he can 
