highland and agricultural society. 
273 
Governor of the College, the highest gratification to be 
enabled to communicate to the Governors of the Institution, 
how much satisfaction their appointment of Mr. Morton as a 
teacher had given to the students. The handsome, present 
before him was a proof of their judgment and good taste. 
On the motion of Mr. Lines, seconded by Mr. Morton, 
received and carried by acclamation, and responded to by 
Mr. Partridge, 
The cordial thanks of the Students were awarded to 
the Committee, for the very efficient manner in which they 
had carried out their wishes. The Committee consisted of — 
Thomas Orme Dudfield, Chairman , 
George Poyser. 
John Blunsom. 
John Garrad. 
William Varley. 
Paul Anthony. 
James Cleveland. 
John Sant, Treasurer, 
William Partridge, Secretary, 
HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
( Continued from p. 233 .) 
Mr. F. Dun said, — I shall confine my observations for the present 
to some of the causes of influenza, and their mode of operation; and 
though this department of the subject is perhaps more difficult and 
obscure, and less interesting and practical than some others, still 
we may, I think, derive some profit from its study, by discovering 
those circumstances on which the severity of the disease, and the 
mortality attending it chiefly depend, and thus obtaining valuable 
indications for the efficient management of horses, both in health 
and disease. Influenza, like most other diseases, owes its develop- 
ment to the co-operation of two classes of causes — the exciting and 
the predisposing. The relative action of these two classes of causes 
has been already aptly and familiarly illustrated by Mr. Barlow. 
Concerning the exciting, real, or proximate cause or causes of influ- 
enza, we still know very little, — scarcely more, indeed, than the 
Italian physicians of the middle ages, who ascribed the malady to 
the influence of the stars. Since the time of this old doctrine, to 
which, by the way, the disease is said by some to owe its name, 
many hundreds of hypotheses have been advanced, many of them 
scarcely more definite or tenable. Influenza, in its epizootic form, 
attacks horses in almost all parts of the world, in every latitude and 
every climate, at all seasons of the year, in every sort of weather, 
and under all varieties of food, work, stabling, and general manage- 
ment. Its wide-spread occurrence in all circumstances, and its 
attacking in but slightly modified form all kinds of animals, show 
that it must be to some extent independent of species of animal, of 
country, climate, geological position, temperature, and management. 
