SCOTTISH METROPOLITAN VETERINARY ASSOCIATION 337 
election of office-bearers for the current year. Professor Williams 
moved that the present office-bearers be re-elected, which was duly 
seconded and carried. 
The Treasurer then submitted his financial statement for the past 
year, which showed the affairs of the Association to be in a pros- 
perous and satisfactory condition. The report was adopted. 
The annual subscriptions for the current year were paid, and 
two new members were nominated for election, viz., Messrs. Balfour 
(Kirkcaldy), and Brown (West Calder). 
The Secretary read a letter in answer to a communication he 
had addressed to Mr. Broughton, Secretary of the Yorkshire 
Veterinary Medical Association, regarding the carrying out of 
Mr. Fearnly’s resolution ; when it was moved, seconded, and unani- 
mously agreed, to nominate one of their number to represent their 
views in Council. In accordance therewith Mr. Robertson, Pre- 
sident of the Association, was elected the representative of the 
Society. 
The ordinary business of the Association being concluded, the 
Chairman called upon Professor Williams, of the Veterinary College, 
Edinburgh, to deliver the address of which he had given notice. 
The Professor on rising said : — Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, 
I propose on the present occasion to address to you a few 
words on “ Enteritis, or Inflammation of the Bowels.” Some 
practitioners restrict the term to inflammation of the mucous and 
muscular coats of the intestines only, using the term peritonitis 
when the external or serous coat of the bowels is affected. For the 
purpose of discussion, however, I will confine my remarks more 
particularly to inflammation as affecting the mucous and muscular 
coats of the intestines ; in short, to inflammation of the bowels 
strictly speaking as a primary disease. 
After describing very minutely the pathology and 'post-mortem 
appearances of the disease, the Professor next went on to speak of 
the medical treatment which appeared to him to be the most bene- 
ficial. He would recommend, he said, large doses of a watery 
solution of opium, so as to assist nature in her efforts to combat the 
disease. He forcibly deprecated the giving of laxatives, and even 
objected to venesection, but would diligently employ enemas and 
also external applications, such as fomenting the abdomen with 
cloths dipped in hot water, the application of blisters, &c. 
He then proceeded to relate a case of enteritis to which he had 
been lately called, and in which he applied the treatment he was 
then advocating. On returning the following day he found his 
patient doing well, the urgency of the symptoms having yielded to 
the means employed ; however, at the pressing solicitation of the 
owner to give a laxative, he yielded, and the result was as had been 
anticipated, namely, that unfavorable symptoms supervened, and the 
animal gradually sunk and died. 
From the Professor’s well-known researches, combined with 
extensive practical experience, and the masterly manner with which 
