ANNUAL MEETING. 
527 
cattle and horses and sheep and swine ; not only an exhibition 
of instruments, beautiful and useful in the highest degree, but 
it assumed a scientific character, the remembrance and the 
benefit of which will not soon pass away. It was a new epoch 
in the annals of agriculture and general science. The labours of 
the agriculturist promised to be usefully mingled with the dis- 
coveries of scientific men. The names of Buckland, and Owen, 
and Playfair, will not be soon forgotten, whether we regard gene- 
ral science, or the application of it to that new branch of philo- 
sophy connected with our manufactures and with agriculture. 
Another important branch of science is beginning to be un- 
folded, or, if it was not new to us, it was but little understood — -the 
physiology of our domestic animals — the scientific application of 
the most approved methods of rearing and fattening our cattle, and 
the means by which their diseases may be mitigated or averted. 
This latter point was at Derby strangely passed over in utter 
silence. An epidemic is now fearfully raging among our cattle. 
It is altogether different from that which prevailed two years 
ago — as different as light from darkness. Was one word said 
about it ? Was the difference of its character, the cause of its ap- 
pearance, the proper mode of treatment, discussed or even alluded 
to ? Did no one hint how murderous in the new complaint must 
be the medicaments that were so strangely foisted on the public 
three or four years ago? Did no one speak of the paramount 
necessity of suiting the treatment to the nature of the malady, 
instead of ignorantly and murderously applying it to every case? 
Was there no veterinary surgeon present at these meetings? — 
Was there no professor of veterinary medicine who might have 
stood forward and explained the nature of this fearful malady, 
and pointed out the proper mode of cure ? “ Hundreds of cattle,” 
says Mr. Barlow, “are now swept away in Cheshire and the 
adjoining counties and the writer of this can say, that fully as 
many are now lost in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. 
The epidemic among horses, as recorded by Mr. Mather, is 
another fearful and neglected subject of inquiry. The Derby 
meeting should not have passed away without these fearful topics 
being thoroughly inquired into. With these drawbacks, and 
they are such, and deserving the strictest inquiry, we regard 
these meetings as highly important and valuable. Y. 
