INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
629 
suffice to show you how important a branch of your studies 
is an investigation of the causes which regulate the spread 
of affections of this class. 
With regard to pleuro-pneumonia, suffice to say that it 
also has existed in the sporadic form, with but little mitiga¬ 
tion, however, either in its severity or fatality. This malady 
appears to prevail to a greater or less extent in both hemi¬ 
spheres of our globe, and everywhere to be attended with the 
same destruction to life. Accounts of its ravages from time 
to time reach us from the distant parts of America, the West 
India Islands, the Cape, and even India. So far as we yet 
know, it has not, however, visited Australia; but it is to be 
remembered that, until 1841, the British Islands were likewise 
free from the disease. Whether it had had a previous existence 
here is a matter of doubt; for, as I have elsewhere stated, an 
account given by a Dr. Barker, in 1745, of a destructive 
malady which then prevailed among the cattle, agrees in a 
remarkable manner both in its symptoms and 'post-mortem 
appearances with pleuro-pneumonia. The pathology of this 
affection shows that it must ever hold a place among the 
most fatal ones; and hence the deep-rooted anxiety which 
the agriculturist feels respecting its occurrence in his herd. 
Hence also the encouragement that is held out for the empiric 
to practise his frauds upon a too-confiding public. 
Before leaving this subject, I would further observe that a 
knowledge of epizootics is indispensable to your success as 
veterinary surgeons, however little you may be enabled to do 
to arrest their progress, or mitigate their effects. It is to this 
class of diseases that the principles of hygiene more espe¬ 
cially apply, for it is equally your duty to diligently seek out 
the causes of disease with a view of their removal, as to alle¬ 
viate suffering wherever it is met with. Humanity also here 
makes its claims upon you. We do not, I fear, as a pro¬ 
fession, sufficiently endeavour to promote the comforts and 
the well-being of the animals committed to our care. We 
often neglect to point out how their dwellings might be im¬ 
proved, and their health promoted, by a better system of ven¬ 
tilation, and of feeding and management. We are too careless 
of these things from the force of habit or of custom. As 
veterinary surgeons, we should recoil at the unnecessary 
infliction of pain, and loudly condemn any barbarity of prac¬ 
tice ; but still we pass by things, without note or comment, by 
which disease and death are hourly promoted. We want 
improvement here. 
Instruction in the science of medicine in this countrv has 
«/ 
been so long united with the inculcation of the principles of 
xxxii. 83 
