IMPORTANCE OF CATTLE PATHOLOGY. 669 
increased. Twenty years since, and long before these causes 
came into full operation, it was shown that the aggregate 
value of cattle exceeded by many thousand pounds that of 
horses ; what, we may ask, must now be the case ? The saving, 
then, of any portion of this great wealth converts the subject 
of a scientific knowledge of their diseases from a professional, 
or an agricultural question into a national one. We must re¬ 
member, likewise, that in this country with its ever limited 
number of acres, we have a rapidly increasing population, 
which must be fed. And although we may fully agree in the 
statement of Mr. Spooner, who remarked in the same lecture 
to which reference has already been made, that better lands 
will support more stock, for science will make England larger, 
will virtually stretch it out, we must nevertheless not forget 
there is a boundary beyond which we cannot pass. It is in 
these things that we have an explanation of the fact, that the 
quantity of cattle and sheep is doubled on many farms ; while 
on others, where these animals had never been kept, save for 
household purposes as it were, the yards and pastures are now 
crowded with them. While we reckon, then, our horses by 
thousands, we have to reckon our sheep and oxen by mil¬ 
lions ; and this must ever be the case. 
Coming to narrower reasoning, we may say that this branch 
of our science is of great practical importance, inasmuch that 
hitherto it has been the stronghold of the charlatan, the farrier, 
and the cow-leach. We have no wish, however, to conceal the 
fact that this has arisen as much, or even more, from the long 
neglect of cattle pathology, as an integral portion of the scien¬ 
tific education of the veterinary student, as from the com¬ 
parative small value of an individual ox or sheep, and the 
hesitation, on the part of its owner, to expend much money on 
its treatment. As I have elsewhere observed, Englishmen 
have too gteat a tendency to take a pound, shillings, and 
pence view of every subject, and so to act that they may not 
be losers by a speculation, or incur what may appear to be 
too expensive a plan of managing their affairs; and that 
hence probably was one of the causes why our cattle and our 
sheep had so long been entrusted to the care of the unedu¬ 
cated pretender, or the village smith, when disease and death 
were making sad havoc among them. These men can and 
do proffer their services for such a remuneration as is impos¬ 
sible for the man of science, and of different standing in 
society, to do. Doubtless the agriculturist who takes this 
narrow view of the subject, believes he is adopting a frugal 
method; but how often does the sequel prove the falsity of 
the opinion ? Death sweeps off many animals that superior 
