INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
613 
it is my duty especially to bring before your notice, as 
subjects of your care, as objects of your thought, nay, I would 
say, as creatures of your love, those beautiful domesticated 
animals which are the servants and companions of man. I 
firmly believe that there is implanted in the human breast, a 
distinct affection, which may be called the love of animals . 
The Creator has ensured many ends by bestowing various 
kinds of affection. Man was clearly intended to subjugate 
many of the inferior animals, to use some of them as 
servants, to understand their ways and to minister to their 
wants. Is it not likely, then, that there should have been a 
passion existing in his breast, which would lead him to begin 
his duty to these his subjects, by the generous impulses of 
his nature ? I must leave this] question ; yet I feel assured 
that every one of you has a kindly spot in his heart, which 
throbs responsively to this animal-loving theory. That great 
poet and chivalric orator, Lamartine, who stood by the boiling 
waves of the last French revolution, and turned the minds of 
the people from the path of blood into order and obedience 
to the laws, is evidently imbued with these feelings. In a 
letter to the TJnivers , of August 7th, 1858, he uses the follow- 
ing touching words : “ I have, from economy, given up my 
horses, which I loved as companions of my youth and of my 
travels. I keep a few dogs, who repay, by love, a morsel of 
bread, and whose tender fidelity seems as a protest against the 
faithlessness of men.” 
This subject is much more important, in a practical point 
of view, than at first sight it might appear, for, if I am not 
mistaken, it is this love of the domesticated animals which 
is the primary cause of all the improved treatment they 
receive in our day; for what is the result and fruit of all our 
science of healing, if it be not expressed in that one blessed 
word — humanity ? This virtue is the goal where our art is 
crowned by heaven itself ; and the word expresses that a man 
is most truly a man when he has the tenderest regard for the 
life and happiness of the beings around and beneath him. 
Now as I consider humanity to be the source of all that care 
and solicitude bestowed upon the lower animals, so I 
would rejoice at the improved conditions, in this respect, 
w 7 hich the present day affords us. These are manifold, but I 
wall only mention some of them. 
First, theemployment of anaesthetic agents, as ether, chloro- 
form, &c., have to a great extent abolished the sense of pain 
protracted surgical operations. This is a blessing both 
for the operator and the subject, enhancing the skill of the 
one, and improving the chances of recovery of the other. 
