IRISH CENTRAL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 155 
stop and rest as soon as he feels exertion hurtful. This is widely 
different from the unfortunate horse, who is expected, as soon as 
the acute stage of disease has succumbed to the effect of the remedies 
employed, to be ready fo take his turn of the work ; no mild 
climate and repose as soon as exertion becomes hurtful, but an early 
start, a cold wait at the cover side, followed by a sharp burst calling 
upon all the respiratory powers to a great extent, even if no disease 
had previously existed, instead of as now pressing upon parts which 
have not recovered their tonicity ; for long after the apparent mis- 
chief has passed away, in all cases of inflammation a weakness re- 
mains in affected parts, and an inability to respond to extra exertion 
which but few professional men have any idea of. 
Or take a case of dislocation or fracture of one of the extremities. 
The human subject is told to keep at rest after the reduction for a 
period varying according to the nature of the injury, perhaps for 
months, and then to return to work gradually ; he is assisted 
through the various stages of recovery by mechanical appliances for 
relieving the part ; but in the animal a considerable amount of extra 
irritation is caused by the necessary appliances to enforce a state of 
comparative repose, in addition to that set up by the accident. The 
restlessness induced by these necessary restraints goes far to nega- 
tive the good results of them, and has to return to work long before 
the parts are in a fit state to stand the amount of exertion required 
of them, simply that he may pay back some part of the expenses 
incurred during treatment, to say nothing of the loss of service. 
The value of horses and cattle varies in accordance with their 
various spheres of duty, and the uses to which they are put ; for 
while some people may not object to an unsound animal — by which 
I mean an animal defective, but not suffering from pain — others 
would have an insuperable objection to such an one being in their 
service, and this brings to my mind an illustration of the difference in 
the value of animals, according to the uses they are put to. During 
the period I was attending the lectures at the Royal College in 
London, I went down with the learned President of that Institution, 
to whose teaching in a great measure I owe what little veterinary 
knowledge I do possess, to visit the establishment of the largest and 
most successful breeder of thorough bred horses in the kingdom ; 
during our inspection w T e came to that animal, “Dundee,” whose 
game struggle, unsuccessful though it proved at the close of the 
race, for the highest prize upon the turf, must ever mark him as one 
of the gamest horses that ever ran. The Professor’s remarks were 
to this effect : “ Mr. Mostyn, if that were a £ 30 hack or a gelding, 
his value would be the price of his skin as an animal used simply as 
a servant, from the nature of the accident rendering him useless as 
a riding or draught horse ; but as the progenitor of a race of 
animals likely to inherit his courage and speed, the results of his 
accident not being hereditary, his value is some thousands.” 
If this is so with horses the case is much stronger with cattle. 
Few animals there are in the ordinary run of stock, excepting the 
highly bred ones used for the propagation of their species, that can 
