BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 31 
administer to the wants and necessities of animals in relation 
to health and disease; who w T atch with jealous attention 
anything that may tend to interfere with the one or produce 
the other; that is to the qualified members of the veterinary 
profession. And how can we fulfil this duty without a 
knowledge of botany ? We may have been taught chemistry, 
with the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of animals ; but 
all these, although so many helps in our investigations, will, 
without the knowledge of botany, be of little use. This 
fact alone then ought to convince us as to the value and 
importance of this science to the veterinary surgeon. It is 
here seen to be both practically and scientifically advan¬ 
tageous, and would tend to raise us in the estimation of our 
employers and the world at large, as scientific men. 
Another view in which this science is of practical use, is 
in relation to the medicinal substances we employ. It is 
chiefly in regard to this that it is considered necessary to be 
included in the education of the human practitioner. Has 
it, I would ask, less claims upon us ? We surely ought to 
be fully acquainted with the botanical characteristics of the 
plants we use as medicinal agents, not only to prevent being 
imposed upon by the admixture or substitution of some 
inferior or different article, which I am sorry to say is not 
unfrequently attempted, but also to enable us to take advan¬ 
tage of those medicinal plants which grow in our own neigh¬ 
bourhoods, so as to obtain them in their best condition for 
our use. It is also of some importance to ascertain what 
effects climate, position, or other agencies may have upon 
plants, so as to increase or decrease their medicinal properties: 
here we shall find botany of the greatest value. 
But in no department is a knowledge of this science of 
greater practical utility than in reference to the poisonous 
influence which some plants have upon our domesticated 
animals. In the detection of poisons, whether vegetable or 
mineral, w T e possess, it may be said, a great advantage over 
the human practitioner, inasmuch as the quantities required 
to produce poisonous action upon most of our domesticated 
animals is comparatively larger, and therefore with greater 
facility detected. But without a knowledge of botany, in 
regard to the detection of poisonous plants, this is not of 
much advantage to the veterinary surgeon; for with what 
certainty could he pronounce the contents of a stomach 
when laid before him to contain this or that plant, without 
knowing the characters by which it is distinguished ? It is 
true he might guess, or he might from some other sources 
form an opinion as to what it was, but guessing and uncer- 
