THE VETERINARIAN AS A MEMBER OF SOCIETY. 
173 
round us, the animal body, in its higher development, is that 
which seems the very essence of mystery and complexity. The 
most minute and exquisitely elaborate organization is wedded to 
and dependent upon chemical affinities of an apparently inscrut¬ 
able character. A wonderful agency—the nervous system—gov¬ 
erns, while it is sustained by intricate and obscure processes; and 
yet we cannot tell the nature nor explain the laws which control 
its actions. All that is wonderful, beautiful and grand in crea¬ 
tion appears to be concentrated in the higher forms of life, but 
in the closest alliance with obscurity, inexplicableness and per¬ 
plexity to the inquirer. Diseases the most prevalent and familiar 
to us are yet hidden in their origin, and evidently in vain we ex¬ 
ercise our skill in interrogating the earth, air and water, or the 
chemical and physical agencies which are everywhere in opera¬ 
tion around us. 
Some of the causes of disease may be so subtle, and yet so 
evanescent, that the moment they have produced their effects 
they may disappear, without our being able to distinguish them, 
or they may become impotent by assuming another form. Others 
may be manifest to our senses, but elude our investigation, and 
many doubtless lurk unseen, unknown, and defy our search. But 
though the etiologist labors under this great disadvantage, and 
though his search into the causation of disease must only too fre¬ 
quently be those of a passive observer, yet these researches are 
often capable of demonstrating the influence of causes on the dis_ 
ease they have developed, and of their capability of being neu¬ 
tralized or rendered less efficient. 
In this respect the knowledge we acquire of the nature of 
causes gives us a means of establishing a system of preventive or 
prophylactic treatment which must ever form the most valuable 
and important department of veterinary science. 
As the prevention or prophylaxis of disease must hold the 
first place in medical and sanitary science—and its importance can¬ 
not be over-estimated, for its object is to render the development 
of maladies impossible, and to preserve individuals or masses of 
animals from their invasion—the suppression or extinction of a 
disease, when it has become developed, occupies the next place, 
and is scarcely of less moment than prevention. 
