INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
693 
diminution of supply or the heightened price of mutton in 
the market. No doubt the mention of this latter evil would 
excite a smile of derision from those ^^’-philanthropists, 
the vegetarians , who recently held a public self-gratulatory 
meeting at the Crystal Palace. 
Some only eat of certain herbs, and lay 
Under dread ban all fish and flesh and wine, 
Extolling green things and the sparkling spring; 
As if brutes only spiritually lived, 
And virtue were a vegetable thing.” 
What I am disposed to regard as an unmitigated evil the 
vegetarians would probably look upon as an undoubted good. 
Alas ! they have not examined narrowly into human nature 
and the history of the physical ills which may overtake it, 
when they could speak of the privation of flesh-meat among 
the famine-stricken cotton-weavers as a source of good. 
Truly may it be said we cannot lose or undergo a diminu¬ 
tion of any staple article of food without suffering from the 
loss. This may not tell upon us at the moment, but 
sooner or later it renders its account — weakening our 
powers of resistance against the insidious onslaught of some 
deadly epidemic. The rise in price of butcher's meat to 
the extent of a halfpenny or a penny in the pound, will 
as surely tell a fatal story in the Registrar-General's returns 
of mortality as shot and shell in the field of battle. A large 
proportion of our population at the best live but a shade 
or two above the point of starvation; a still larger pro¬ 
portion are insufficiently and badly fed. An outbreak of 
an epizootic among cattle or sheep may often make the 
differential element in the outbreak, or not, of epidemic 
disease among these persons in the forthcoming year. Hence 
it is that outbreaks of disease, such as that which has occurred 
in Wiltshire, involve questions of national as well as of in¬ 
dividual importance—questions touching not only upon per¬ 
sonal losses, but also on losses seriously affecting the welfare 
of the whole population. 
It is from this point of view that we obtain the most just 
idea of the true dignity of veterinary science and the right 
place of the veterinary practitioner in the community. From 
this point also we obtain the most correct estimate of his 
duties, for it is upon the progress of veterinary science and 
the skilful exercise of the veterinary art that a community 
has to depend for its chief safety and protection from the 
evils arising from epizootic diseases. This consideration 
heightens our responsibility to the utmost in the practice of 
our profession. Inaccurate appreciation of, or indifference or 
