INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
635 
been endemic among the horned cattle of the steppes, both 
of Russia, Siberia, and Tatary, and has at various times be- 
come epidemic, and spread to Hungary and Poland, and 
thence to Germany and Western Europe. It has been cal- 
culated that during the last century alone, this disease 
carried off 28,000,000 head of cattle in Germany ; and in 
the whole of Europe (including Russia, but exclusive of 
Siberia and Tatary), upwards of 200,000,000. It has fre- 
quently prevailed in the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, 
especially from 1774 to 1781, when 150,000 head of cattle 
perished. In 1813, it again broke out in the Duchies, but 
w 7 as speedily checked and eradicated by the stringent mea- 
sures and police regulations adopted by the Danish govern- 
ment.” It further appears, that the mortality averages 50 
per cent, in the steppes of Russia, and in Germany 80 to 90 
per cent. No doubt seems to exist with regard to the con- 
tagious nature of this disease in the minds of those w ho are 
practically acquainted w ith it, and that its extension depends 
on this circumstance as w 7 ell as on the hidden causes of epi- 
zootics in general. From the account given of its symptoms, 
progress, and fatality, we can scarcely question that the 
malady is identical with that which Dr. Layard described in 
1757-8, as having proved for several years so destructive to 
our herds, costing the country year by year not only the 
lives of thousands of its cattle, but the treasury tens of thou- 
sands of pounds, to meet the losses sustained by the owmers 
of the animals ; the government of the day providing that a 
sum not exceeding forty shillings, should be paid for every 
infected beast w hich was killed directly upon the appearance 
of the disease. If in those times, w hen the importation of 
cattle into our sea-girt isle w as jealously guarded against by 
high protective duties, the disease made its appearance here ; 
can w r e reasonably expect it w r ill be otherwise now that these 
duties are removed, and it has become a matter of necessity, as 
w 7 ell as policy, to allow 7 the free entrance, among others, of 
each kind of animal used as food for the people ? 
With such facts before us, with reference to the losses 
sustained from only one epizootic, w T e believe that we have 
placed in the clearest possible light the necessity of hygiene 
to the veterinary surgeon. 
We shall now pass to another collateral branch of science, 
which is likewise intimately connected wdth the prevention 
of disease, namely Botany. My views, in common with some 
others of my colleagues, have been so frequently expressed 
w ith reference to botany forming an integral part of the curri- 
culum of your studies, that it is unnecessary to repeat them 
