UNION OF VETERINARY MEDICINE AND AGRICULTURE. 671 
these supplies have been regularly kept up, and we have the 
satisfaction and pride of stating, that w r e now enjoy the full 
confidence of this National Society. Besides its liberal dona¬ 
tions to the College, it annually offers prizes of £50, £40, and 
£50 for the best essays on the general management of animals, 
prevention and treatment of their diseases. These papers, 
which are published in the journal of the society, undoubtedly 
tend to the production of much good; besides showing to 
the great mass of farmers that an equal amount of scientific 
knowledge is needed by the medical attendant of his cattle and 
sheep, as of his more valuable animal— the horse; convincing 
him thereby that in this particular also “a little knowledge 
is a dangerous thing.” Added to these things, we have the 
delivery of lectures before its members at the annual meet¬ 
ings ; the appointment of a veterinary inspector to watch the 
outbreak of sudden and destructive diseases; and to examine 
the animals as to their freedom from hereditary defects, that 
are selected at the shows as fitting recipients of the prizes. 
All this has not been done, and all this machinery brought 
into operation, it may truly be observed, but from the pressing 
necessity of the thing. 
It is among cattle and sheep, from the earliest to the 
present time, that destructive epizootics have prevailed. The 
“ murrain” of old, a term, perhaps, which expresses a class 
rather than any particular disease, destroyed its thousands 
and tens of thousands; and pleuro-pneumonia of the present 
day would be equally destructive, but for well-directed efforts 
to limit its extension. Mysterious as undoubtedly is the 
origin of all these maladies, the influences of secondary causes 
in propagating them are no less extraordinary. Some of 
these causes are well understood, but others offer new fields 
of investigation, and it is to these that science must direct 
her searching eye. Everything around, above, and beneath 
us, tells of being governed by the law of order. Caprice and 
confusion, in truth, do not exist; nor does chance play any 
part in what we daily observe passing about us. “ Chance,” 
says the learned and eloquent Dr. Cumming, “ is the atheist’s 
creed, condensed into a monosyllable.” Law and order, 
then, belong to these epizootic diseases, without reference to 
the kind of victim they select, or to what extent they may 
prevail; and therefore, just in proportion as we are made 
acquainted with these laws, so shall we be enabled, if not to 
control, yet to oppose their effects. 
For this especial purpose an important society has recently 
been formed in this metropolis, whose ramifications already 
extend to India, and most parts of the civilised globe. Founded 
