SUGGESTIONS FOR ITS IMPROVEMENT. 
245 
species, though extended investigation would prove it to be so*. 
Therefore we need not feel surprise, when human medical prac- 
titioners attempt the investigation of the diseases of animals, that 
they should get bewildered in a labyrinth, the clue to escape from 
which, though perfectly simple, they know not how to unravel. 
Since the advent of the late Professor Coleman, himself a hu- 
man medical practitioner, the incalculable advantages which the 
veterinary art derived from human medical science has been loudly 
biuited in every possible way; and this, true to a certain extent, 
has been so magnified, that it must now appear to all reflecting 
minds quite a burlesque. 
In the departments of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and the 
materia medica, which are the only true branches of medical know- 
ledge, much has been done in human medicine ; but is this know- 
ledge available to the veterinarian ] Only to a slight extent : it 
applies chiefly to man. To whom are we to look for the advance- 
ment of our art 1 It is manifestly clear that it is not to those who 
have been so long bepraised as our “ patrons” and most valuable 
“ teachers” : on this point I speak feelingly, having met wdth so 
much envious malice and obstruction in the pursuit of veterinary 
physiology and pathology from human medical practitioners. I 
speak of the body : there have been a few, and but very few, 
exceptions. As an old student of human medicine I respect them, 
and have much to be grateful for ; but as a veterinarian, I am no- 
thing whatever indebted, not even for co-operation. I doubt not 
but others can tell a similar tale. 
But how much is human medicine indebted to comparative me - 
dical science ? 
This question, so easily answered, has not even been glanced 
at by any one, that I am aware of : I have already alluded slightly 
to this part of the subject. On how many points of physiology, 
pathology, and the modus operandi of remedial or injurious agents, 
is it not indebted to our branch of art] the list is too long to quote. 
Hardly a work on general (human) physiology or pathology has 
* But this is only so in appearance, for all the true types of disease existing 
in man may be traced throughout the whole of the higher order of domestic 
animals ; for example, fever in more than one form, or, better still, tuberculous 
disease , I have been able to trace in the horse, ass, ox, sheep, hog, dog, cat, 
rabbit, and, if I am not greatly mistaken, even amongst poultry. I also 
think that could wild animals be continually and carefully observed, they 
would also be found to be under the same law. Every fox-hunter must have 
occasionally met with a mangy fox, that is, one suffering from skin disease. 
Some animals, however, are so little prone to various forms of disease, that 
it requires long and close observation to ascertain their existence ; but be- 
cause they may not, from their rarity, have been noticed, it does not follow 
that they never exist. 
