VETERINARIANS AS SANITARIANS. 
705 
absorption of pro-fonned ptomaines from such a local focus of 
putrefaction.” Are we justified in the light of present knowl¬ 
edge, touching so important a question, to assent by silence to 
the sale of a food product contrary to revealed knowledge ? Or 
if, on the other hand, our busy life hinders personal investiga¬ 
tion, that we may know from experience these facts, are we to 
doubt the result of investigation made by others who have in¬ 
vestigated ? When human life and happiness hinge on any one 
question, too much is at stake to admit of theory, long-drawn 
out deductions, and hair-splitting conclusions to prove that 
under such and such conditions certain agencies and elements 
are harmless. No, better things are expected of us. We are in 
a position to lead and become the sanitarians of our time. The 
transmission of disease by clinics, manifesting itself in typical 
form in other patients remote from the seat of infection, which, 
at the time being, are suffering slightly' from some form of en¬ 
zootic disease, or are to undergo some ordinary operation, is of 
sufficient importance to engage attention in our daily practice. 
Its influence relative to the commercial value of the lower 
animals is too significant to admit of casual treatment, the oper¬ 
ator acting as the medium by which the infection is conveyed. 
I will cite two cases, one in which the present speaker was the 
medium of transmission in one case, and the other a regular 
practicing physician. 
In the spring of 1891 we were treating a case of tetanus in a 
filly two years old. She and an own brother, one year older, 
were running together in an open shed. They were separated 
by putting a partition through the inclosure. After the filly re¬ 
covered the owner wanted the horse colt castrated ; this was 
done by the usual method of casting the animal, removing the 
testicles, with no bad results following. One week later we 
were called upon to castrate another colt five miles distant from 
the farm where tetanus had existed, using the same casting rig. 
In this case I ligatured the spermatic artery with sterilized cat¬ 
gut, the colt, apparently, doing well until about one week later, 
the owner repotted that something was wrong with the colt, 
