REPORT OF ANNUAL MEETING. 
367 
Mr. Goodwin said that although he was not in practice he 
still took, as he always should do, a great interest in every¬ 
thing that belonged to the profession. He recently read in 
the newspaper a leading article consisting chiefly of quota¬ 
tions from statements by Professor Gamgee, in which re¬ 
ference was made to the mortality of animals from splenic 
apoplexy, and it was stated that so virulent was the disease 
that even a few drops of blood in a bowl of water lapped up 
by a dog would cause certain death. He had been asked by 
' several persons what was splenic apoplexy, and he confessed 
that he was unable to answer the question. It had been 
stated that it was the same as the German miltzbrandt. He 
(Mr. Goodwin) had alwaystinderstood that that was a per¬ 
fectly distinct disease. A good deal had been lately said, 
also, about ovine smallpox.^^ Having recently read an 
excellent French veterinary work on the subject, he found 
that the malady had been well known in France for more 
than 200 years, and that although the symptoms somewhat 
resembled smallpox, the two diseases were essentially dif¬ 
ferent, it being stated that smallpox could not be produced 
from the virus taken from the affected animals. He recently 
read a paper communicated to the Royal Society in 1804, by 
Sir Joseph Banks, who stated what might be expected some 
day or other if we did not prevent the importation of dis¬ 
eased animals into the country; and who likewise stated that 
the two disorders to which he had referred ought- not to be 
confounded. He did not comprehend how English veteri¬ 
nary professors, after all the information previously given 
upon the subject, should take upon themselves to throw it aside, 
and call the disease that had recently appeared smallpox. 
The President said that was not the proper time or place 
to discuss a scientific question. They believed that the 
name given to the disease was warranted by the progress of 
the affection, and by the symptoms that were developed; 
and if the occasion was a fitting one, they would, no doubt, 
be able to convince Mr. Goodwin that the name was not so 
inappropriate as he supposed. 
Professor Spooner thought that the report should contain 
some further information on the subject of the modus ope- 
randi by which the action of the Board of Examiners for 
Scotland had hitherto exercised its functions.^^ They were 
not enlightened as to what the alterations were, and as the 
subject was one of great importance, every information 
respecting it should be afforded. 
Reference was made in the Report to the attempt to 
obtain from Parliament certain immunities in favour of the 
