650 
NEW YORK STATE VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
as soon as they can be detected. Above all, if such breeding herd of dormant cases can 
be subjected to a continuous out-of door life on the open prairie, where the chances for 
recovery are highest, and the risks of contagion lowest, they may be made profitable by 
attenmg their healthy progeny for beef, or still more so, by perpetuation of a valuabie 
strain of blood. Under such professional supervision, and frequent testing, the actually 
recovered animals could in due time be removed from their still questionable companions 
and restored to a guaranteed herd. But the one who would argue from this that the 
actual, though somewhat latent and doimant cases should be left in the herd that has been 
tested, and proved to be above suspicion, is but pleading for a field for the propagation of 
the contagion. The acute cases that would develop at intervals would entail new victims 
no longer among the latent cases and suspected animals only, but among the tested and 
sound as well.' 
Under average conditions, with low priced cattle and a state indemnity, the slaughter 
o all the tuberculous would be the course of economical and successful sanitary work and 
when special conditions rendered another and less radical resort permissible, it should 
only be adopted when, hedged about by such precautions as would obviate danger to man 
and beast. We know enough about the dreaded tuberculosis, to say that we can deal 
wRh it successfully under the most varied conditions, but our past achievement does not 
imply that we have as yet reached the limit of possible success in this disease ; and a simi- 
ar success foi a whole state or nation would not warrant us in saying that no better meas¬ 
ures can be taken. Such a conclusion would be utterly unscientific and unduly conserva- 
tive. It is the best at present known to us. 
But in these days, when knowledge advances by leaps and bounds, no one can say 
what to-morrow may have in store for us. Some as yet unknown Edison or Tesla may be 
even now preparing a surprise in the revelation and utilization of natural forces, of which 
" e ’ittle dream, and which may cast into the shade our steam engines, our electric tele¬ 
graphs, telephones, phonographs and skiagraphs. So in the field of biology and modern 
medicine, the largest hopes and the brightest ideals are likely to prove the most scientific. 
1 he vivid imagination and the scientific foresight must unite to help in our future progress, 
i °t in the case of tuberculosis alone, but in connection with the entire field of medicine 
a whole phalanx of possibilities, big with promise for the future of humanity, comfort us.' 
s biologists we see genera, species and even varieties of animals that are largely insus- 
cepUble to this and that deadly disease. It is for us to grasp the cause of this immunity, 
ancl it possible to render it available over a wider area. 
As bacteriologists we recognize incompatibilities and antagonisms between the living 
cells of the animal body and their products on the one hand, and the pathogenic microbe 
and its products on the other, flow far can we avail of these to strike a balance favorable 
or and protective to the animal. We are as yet on the mere confines of this great science 
°1 bacteriology. In the vast microscopic world, full of attractions and repulsions, of living 
ce s and microbes, of neutralizations and physiological antagonisms, of leucomaines, pto- 
mains, toxins, and enzymes, of sozins and phylaxins, there are many and bright promises 
for the future of preventive and therapeutic medicine. But it is only the trained mind, 
rich with the knowledge already attained in this science, that can hope to achieve the tri- 
ump so tie utuie. Knowledge, skill, imagination, sound judgment, and indefatigable 
industry muspcombine in the man who would hope for success in this field. It is no place 
or the dull or the laggard. Without undue arrogance it may be asserted that to us has been 
a. otte a arge measure of responsibility in relation to this work. By the generositv of 
the Empire State we are enabled to enter on the field. We have been furnished with the 
nucleus of a scientific institution from which large and important results may fairly be ex- 
pecte . e are honored as being, in a sense, the pioneers in a comparatively new field, 
we have the place of advanced guard in the inevitable warfare. Though small in num¬ 
bers our chosen battle-field is one in which numbers count for less than quality, and in re¬ 
spect to quality we have to prove ourselves. Let us take as our primary thought the So- 
cratic aphorism, “knowledge is virtue, ignorance is crime.” In this case this is preemi¬ 
nently—-I may say painfully—true. As the beneficiaries of the State we shall prove 
unthankful and unworthy if we fail to make the best use possible of its bounty. As 
ti usted lepresentatives of science, it is expected of us that we fortify ourselves with the 
lore of the past, and strike out with clear vision, steady foot, and strong hand for future 
achievement. 
