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REFLECTIONS ON CATTLE PATHOLOGY. 
Two strong attempts have been made to produce men fitted for 
the task of regenerating cattle pathology : both have proved 
failures. The first was aimed at by the Odiham Society, some- 
where about the year 1790, which, after taking great pains to esta- 
blish the now Royal Veterinary College, finally merged its inte- 
rests into that institution. For fifty years, however, nothing was 
done in advancement of the department of cattle pathology; — 
rarely, indeed, was such a subject even named. Seven years ago 
another attempt was made. The Royal Agricultural Society of 
England munificently granted £260 per annum to the same Insti- 
tution for the express purpose of studying and teaching this branch 
of veterinary medicine ; but at the end of seven years that 
society find it requisite to inquire into the results arising from 
their munificent grant, their earnest wishes. So little has been 
done, so insignificant are the advances which have been made, that 
public notice is given by one of the Society’s most active members, 
that it would be desirable to apply a portion of the sum hitherto 
granted in some other way, to obtain that which they had failed in 
obtaining through the Veterinary College. 
Twice has a powerful effort been made to rouse an institution 
founded with the avowed object, and carried on with the open pro- 
fession, of being the school in which all branches of the veterinary 
art are to be taught, arrogating to itself the whole honour, the 
whole end, and sole prerogative, of ruling over, teaching, and direct- 
ing the veterinary profession. Can we wonder that our most in- 
fluential stock-owners — and by their example all others — place 
no confidence in veterinary surgeons for a knowledge of the dis- 
eases or treatment of cattle, sheep, or pigs, when they have failed 
in eliciting from the school such a system as could teach even the 
elements of the art as applicable to these animals 1 This is the 
only excuse that can be brought forward in defence of the treat- 
ment to which those able and willing to do their utmost for 
amendments have personally experienced ; and certainly it is 
almost an unanswerable position. 
That which is past cannot be recalled ; but if the agriculturists 
as a body will only support the veterinary surgeons in their efforts, 
they will find enough able and willing to carry out the subject to 
the fullest extent. 
The only possible way to arrive at any useful practical end is 
to commence de novo. The elementary studies are, anatomy, 
physiology, and therapeutics ; of the first, so much ought to be 
known of the muscular system as relates to joints, because luxa- 
tions have at times to be reduced ; the arterial and nervous 
system (especially the sympathetic, which is largely developed, as 
1 shall have occasion to refer to hereafter), the thoracic and abdo- 
minal viscera, and the generative organs. A . knowledge of phy- 
