INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. G19 
education, and also the means and provisions which are 
thought conducive to this end. 
“ The anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the horse, 
and all other domesticated animals,” stand first on the record. 
These branches of science are not in themselves medicine, 
nor do they constitute practice ; yet they are indispensable 
telegraphs as it were of knowledge, enabling the medical man 
to operate with precision on the organs and viscera of the 
body, which, without the application of them, nature conceals 
from his view. In former days the practice of the veterinary 
art was necessarily founded on empiricism, and remedies 
were given for the merest superficial symptoms ; often, it is 
true, with good results, but without any principles to guide 
the administrator. 
The difference which now exists in the practice of the pro- 
fession is very much like what has been recently effected 
by the laying down of the wires of the electric telegraph to 
the seat of war, as, without this means, we have no knowledge 
of what is taking place in that distant, and, so to speak, 
concealed part of the world; for it is hidden from our 
view”, by its distance, as the lungs or the intestines are hidden 
by the boundary walls of their respective cavities. It is true 
we feel anxious and ill at ease ; we endure the pains and suffer 
the penalties of our distant army, for it is really bound up 
with our hearts and living sympathies ; yet we could not 
know what is going on, or what are its requirements, but 
for the telegraph as a means for communicating knowledge. 
Thus it is that we know from hour to hour what are the dis- 
asters, or successes of our arms in that remote and previously 
concealed part of the body-politic, so to speak ; and the state 
doctors can, so far as their skill extends, treat the case, 
although they cannot see it but through the eyes of science, 
nor feel it but by the ministering hand of skill. 
Just in the same way, anatomy, physiology and pathology 
are the conducting wires through the avenues of the animal 
body, and enable the veterinary surgeon first to know where 
the morbid action is going on, and then to attack the disease 
in its seat. This constitutes the difference between the well- 
educated veterinarian, and the charlatan. The man of educa- 
tion proceeds according to his knowledge of nature, whereas 
the other has nothing but general indications to guide him, 
which are often delusive. Both, however, may not unfrequently 
be wrong, so difficult and uncertain is the practice of veterinary 
medicine ; yet there can be no question that a sound educa- 
tion in these fundamental sciences is the road towards cer- 
tainty and safety in practice. 
