INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
703 
that you have mastered all that is needed for the successful 
practice of your art. You may have acquired what is neces¬ 
sary for its empirical practice, but not more. As in human 
medicine, so in veterinary, it has been this looking for 
the most patent and immediate results of practice that has 
been the greatest impediment to progress. Diseases will not 
be limited by definitions and typical descriptions, and the 
necessarily circumscribed experience of a hospital will not 
include all the varieties of the same form of disease found in 
the stall, the fold, and the field. 
A thorough familiarity with the structure and functions 
of the different parts of the frame and of the habits of an 
animal, will alone enable you to apply satisfactorily the 
knowledge of disease which you may obtain, or to contend 
with any new forms of disease that may arise, or to impede 
the progress or mitigate the effects of those disastrous epi¬ 
zootics to which I have referred. A proper application of 
preventive medicine in flocks and herds is only possible upon 
an accurate acquaintance with all that relates to the feeding, 
rearing, breeding, stabling, folding—nay, to the entire habits 
and requirements of domesticated animals. 
Preventive medicine has been, of all the different divisions 
of veterinary art, the most neglected in this country, and 
it is the least amenable to routine practice. It is, however, 
that branch of veterinary practice which, perhaps, most needs 
attention at the present time, and which promises best for 
the welfare of the profession, the practitioner, and the com¬ 
munity. But a wide application of preventive medicine 
must be almost entirely dependent upon the tact and know¬ 
ledge of the individual practitioner. We have, in the practice 
of our art, to deal with many ignorant and impracticable 
people—herdsmen, shepherds, grooms, and too often even 
masters—who will see no benefit except such as may be 
immediately before them, and who are guided by no high 
estimate of duty in their business dealings. Our best efforts 
are liable to be foiled by these men—men who have an indo¬ 
mitable faith in the value of their own “ experience.” There 
is only one way in which such persons can be beneficially 
influenced, and that is by showing so complete a familiarity 
with all that relates to their most minute duties, and the 
requirements of the stock with which they may have to deal, 
as to compel their respect for ourselves and our opinions. 
This once done, the path is clear. 
But if I urge thus earnestly the study of the anatomy and 
physiology and habits of domesticated animals, do not sup¬ 
pose that I elevate these subjects above that of disease. I 
