72 YORKSHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
The Secretary read his report for the past year. Votes 
of thanks were then accorded to the retiring officers. The 
President and Secretary being induced to retain office, were 
re-elected. Mr. Greaves thought it too much to expect Mr. 
Harwood to continue his services, which had been given to the 
Association for a number of years. He should therefore propose 
Mr. Woods, of Wigan, as Treasurer, which was seconded by 
Mr. G. Heyes, and carried unanimously. Messrs. Jos. Leather, 
W. Dobie and T. Roberts, were elected Vice-presidents; Messrs. 
Reynolds, Remy, Morgan and Elam were elected a committee to 
examine and report on the existing rules at next meeting, with 
the President, Secretary and ex-officers. Mr. P. Ellis arriving 
late, after being unavoidedly detained, promised his essay on 
<( Parturient Apoplexy ” for next meeting, which will be held in 
the usual place the second Friday in Eebruary, 1872. 
W. C. Lawson, 
Hon. Sec. 
YORKSHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
EPIZOOTIC AND ENZOOTIC DISEASES IN THE HORSE. 
{An Essay read before the Yorkshire and other Veterinary Medical Societies, 
by Mr. Thomas Greaves, M.R.C.V.S.) 
Our age is marked by a spirit of inquiry, directness of aim, and 
the skilled power to do the work required of us with completeness 
and economy; nothing that has been done is lost; invention awakes 
invention, discovery leads to discovery, each advance is a starting point 
for the future labourer, and thus we find better work, more simple, 
and more to the purpose, yet much more remains to be done. The 
ship, the bridge, the rail, the telegraph, and the gun of the present 
day as compared with the past are types, and mark the skill, pre¬ 
cision, and advancing energy of the present time. Medicine, too, 
partakes of this movement that is going on all around us. The 
knowledge of disease is becoming more accurate and more exten¬ 
sive. Each year gives us better ideas of what medicines can do, 
and what they cannot do. If the spirit of scepticism has shaken 
the belief of a few in the medicinal means at our command, that 
spirit has aroused inquiry, converted belief, which is shifting, into 
knowledge that is secure. Thus our knowledge of disease ripens, 
and our aims in its treatment become more and more precise and 
vigorous, and all men ask themselves at each step they take, why 
they do this or that; reason takes the place of routine, and rational 
medicine becomes the common property of the profession. But 
there are still many of us who cling to doctrines that have long 
since been exploded, and follow customs that are unsuited to existing 
