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INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
enabled to take cognizance of cause and effect, and of giving 
to the malady its local habitation and name. 
It is difficult to say how much we are indebted to the 
practitioner of human medicine for the present state of vete- 
rinary science, as his division has been cultivated for a much 
longer time than ours, and the labourers in this field have of 
course far exceeded our own in number. Moreover, some of 
our own great authorities have been, in the first instance, 
medical men. We need, however, feel no jealousy on this 
account, for we have our own difficulties and peculiarities, in 
which the sister profession but faintly resembles us. For 
example, the medical profession has to do with beings, who, 
to a certain extent, can describe their ailments. We, on the 
other hand, have to deal with dumb animals ; and I have often 
heard my medical friends express their wonder how we ever 
arrive at a knowledge of the disease. This you may rely 
upon, — such knowledge is only to be attained by rigid and 
close observation. Moreover, when you take into account 
that human medicine has to do with only one species, while 
we have the whole series of domesticated animals for our 
charge, you will be at no loss to discover that we have a field 
before us in w 7 hich scientific glory may be won, if we choose 
to labour for it. 
On another ground veterinary medicine deserves credit. 
It has risen to its present state quite unprotected ; with no 
police to enforce it, and no laws to shield it. No man is 
responsible to society for the medical treatment of his horses 
or his cattle. He can call in a practitioner or not, as he 
pleases, and his neighbours will neither blame nor praise him 
much, beyond approving his wisdom, or censuring his im- 
prudence, as it regards the care of his property. The only 
claim which dumb animals can make is to a common feeling of 
humanity; but which, as far as their medical treatment is 
concerned, it is not written in any statute-book. Look, 
however, at the different position of human medicine. Not 
a man, woman, or child, in this country, can die and be 
entombed without the doctor. Not a burial can take place with- 
out a qualified practitioner’s certificate. No man can show 
his face in society, who has not provided satisfactory treat- 
ment for his ailing or dying family or friend. No man can 
die without leaving to the sister profession the legacy of a 
doctor’s bill. Here, indeed, is a mine of practice, of even 
arbitrary power, and of w ealth, for the medical profession. 
We have nothing like this to build upon; and yet, in spite 
of the absence of legal patronage and of public constraint, 
the veterinary profession has become recognised ; has passed 
