502 OBSERVATIONS ON VETERINARY SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 
tended with gaseous matter, and contained a solid lump of 
ingesta, composed of hay, &c. This was the only thing to 
be observed in the viscera of the abdominal cavity incom- 
patible with health. The urinary organs were also healthy. 
In fact, nothing which could throw a satisfactory light on 
the cause of the disease was to be found by an examination 
•> 
of either the internal or external parts of the body. 
I have been induced to send you the history of this case, 
believing the disease to be of rare occurrence among cattle; 
at least, I have never before seen a case of the kind. Al¬ 
though the general rigidity of the muscles was great, and 
the spasms very intense and painful, still the irritability of 
the animal was by no means equal to that which is seen in 
the horse. Making a sudden noise would lead to the tetanic 
spasms showing themselves more severely, but even then 
there was not that peculiarly anxious and frightened look 
which is so characteristic of the disease in the horse. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE AND REQUIRE¬ 
MENTS OF VETERINARY SCIENCE IN 
AMERICA. 
By Chas. M. Wood, V.S., Boston, Massachusetts. 
Gentlemen, —Having read your article in the May 
number of the Veterinarian, “ on the importance of co¬ 
operation,” I was gratified to find, that the arguments I had 
used, in this country, to bring about such co-operation, were 
so ably enforced by yourselves. Here, ever since the 
practice of the veterinary art, each practitioner has acted by 
himself, and, to use a common expression in this country, 
“ done business on his own hook.” 
Until very recently there were no veterinary associations 
in all New England, that populous part of the United States 
which claims precedence over the rest in scholarship and 
scientific attainments. Only a year since, a few of us, here 
in Boston, Massachusetts, formed a society for mutual in¬ 
struction, and for debating the cases which its members 
communicated. 
From that small beginning we have now an association 
formed for the improvement and diffusion of veterinary 
knowledge among those practitioners who feel interested in 
the subject. 
