COMPARATIVE PATHOLOGY. 
555 
certainly more immediate in its application, appears to have re- 
ceived no attention, and, save to a few, is scarcely recognised by 
name. I allude to comparative pathology, which, were the proper 
steps taken to arrange and classify the facts already ascertained, 
might be valuable to the dearest interest of mankind. To study 
the disease of and to investigate the action of medicines upon ani- 
mals, is at present only the duty of veterinary surgeons, and the 
results they obtain are too generally regarded as curiosities calcu- 
lated to amuse, but not fitted to instruct. No serious attention is 
paid to the development of veterinary science, but it is left to a 
class of men whose numbers are comparative^ few, and whose in- 
formation is unheeded. The works of the human medical profes- 
sion abound in assertions concerning the lower creatures, which, 
though announced as the results of experiments, are too frequently 
of a kind which he who has been accustomed to treat the dis- 
orders of animals reads with surprise and regrets as falsities. 
Sincerely do I regret this circumstance ; I wish there was a more 
close connexion between the veterinary and the medical profes- 
sions. The two never could be confounded ; but, were there a 
more easy means of communication established, I think that which 
is really knowledge would be increased, and society would be 
proportionably benefited. To bring about the union of, or rather 
to lessen the space which at present seems to divide, two orders 
that ought not to be absolute strangers to one another, has always 
been my desire. When 1 state this, I do not pretend to conceal 
that, could the thing be done, the veterinary profession would be 
advantaged. The object sought by its members would be ele- 
vated, and, of course, the members would be proportionably raised. 
This is self-evident, but from this I do not anticipate the higher 
order would suffer the slightest degradation. On the contrary; as 
patronage in any shape, next to actual possession, gives import- 
ance, it seems reasonable that, in this instance, a proof of station 
would be established, which in the eyes of the public could not be 
without its effect. As the assistants, not the equals, of the sur- 
geon and physician, I wish to see veterinary students recognised. 
Only in the zeal for knowledge would I have them united, and in 
their labours I would place the veterinary profession secondary. 
It is not for rank, but for the power to be useful, that I plead ; and 
to me it does appear extraordinary that the possibility of such 
power existing has not been more seriously considered. 
Without pursuing further these remarks, J will here attempt to 
shew that we do occasionally meet with cases, and are, as it were 
by circumstances, forced to employ treatment that might be sug- 
gestive of measures calculated to alleviate human suffering. About 
two years ago, a member of our profession, who had been my pupil, 
