494 
IMPORTANCE OF THE VETERINARY ART. 
At his death be bequeaths us his flesh for food, his hair for 
brushes, and his fat for medical and culinary purposes. 
The immense and profitable disproportion between the labour 
of the ass and the mule, and the expense of their food, render 
their health of great importance in those countries where wheel 
carriages cannot be employed to convey the products of the 
earth to a public market. 
The goat by its contributions of the delicate flesh of its young, 
and of its medicinal milk to our use, is entitled to a share of 
medical attention. 
The courage and fidelity of the dog in defending our persons 
and property from the midnight assassin and robber, and the 
usefulness of the cat in destroying or chasing from our houses 
the mischievous animals that infest our cellars and closets, entitle 
each of them to an inquiry into the causes and cures of their 
diseases. 
It remains only to mention the claims of poultry of all kinds 
to a physician’s care. They adorn our yards and fruit trees with 
their plumage. They inform us by their crowing and other 
noises of the approach of day. A part of them furnish us with 
eggs for aliment, with quills for writing, and with feathers for 
our beds ; and all of them, in a greater or less number at a time, 
generally constitute after death a portion of our banquets, where 
a display is intended of hospitality or elegance. 
In addition to what has been said in favour of domestic ani¬ 
mals in their individual capacities, I shall only remark that, 
collectively, they lessen the solitude and silence of a country 
life. They please us with their gambols when young, and 
delight us by their looks and gestures in mature life every time 
they receive food or shelter from our hands. They furnish the 
means of increasing and perpetuating the fertility of our lands, 
and, finally, they gratify us with a sense of our sovereignty over 
their labour and their lives ; and thus furnish us with a small 
portion of that pleasure which the father of the human race en¬ 
joyed, when he received from his Creator the commission of his 
extensive dominion over all the creatures that live and move 
upon our globe. 
A third reason why we are bound to study the causes and cure 
of the diseases of domestic animals, is because nature is wholly 
passive in such of them as are violent, or does harm in her efforts 
to remove them. This is evident in a more especial manner in 
the epidemics which sometimes prevail among them. The horses, 
cattle, and sheep, of large neighbourhoods and extensive dis¬ 
tricts, are often swept away by those general diseases where no 
aid is afforded from medicine. 
