438 
ROYAL COLLEGE OP VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
how this may be best and most economically effected, its assistance is of 
special importance in the prevention and cure of the many accidents and 
disorders to which such animals are liable—a liability which becomes in¬ 
creased with their higher breeding and more artificial treatment. In the 
prevention and suppression of contagious maladies among animals the 
veterinary profession can lay strong claims for recognition as a useful 
public body; and as some of these disorders are transmissible to the 
human species and produce serious, oftentimes fatal, disease in it, its 
services to human sanitary police are most essential and important. 
In this direction, then, not only does veterinary science assist in in¬ 
creasing the number, utility, and value of the domesticated animals, 
and protect them from the evil consequences of this domestication and 
improvement, but it remedies their diseases and accidents; and in pre¬ 
venting or suppressing the destructive contagious maladies to which 
they are liable, it preserves a large portion of the national wealth from 
loss, while it protects the public food supply, and guards the community 
from the dangers attending the consumption or use of diseased flesh, 
milk, or other animal products. 
In addition to being the medical and sanitary guardian of the im¬ 
mense animal wealth of the country, veterinary science is also largely con¬ 
cerned in the promulgation of just views as to the humane treatment 
of animals in health as well as in disease ; and it devotes itself in a 
special manner to the elucidation of the many animal disorders, their 
nature and causes, as well as the medical measures which will most 
economically and effectively prevent or cure them. As an exact know¬ 
ledge of many at present obscure maladies of mankind can only be 
gained by studying the same or analogous diseases in animals, vete¬ 
rinary pathology in this way becomes intimately allied with human 
pathology, and can greatly assist in advancing it, and thus materially aid 
in preventing, or at least alleviating, human suffering. 
The great value of veterinary science in these different directions has 
been recognised in Europe only at a comparatively recent period; but 
this recognition has impelled every European country, except our own, 
to take this science under its especial and immediate care. Consequently, 
we find all these countries in possession of schools, several on a large 
scale, wherein veterinary science is cultivated and taught by eminent 
men; the schools being maintained by the respective governments at the 
public expense, as they were instituted for the public benefit. 
This country has been the last to estimate the value of veterinary 
science, and it has not yet recognised, except to the most insignificant 
extent, the benefits it has conferred, and may continue to confer, upon 
civilisation and humanity. 
The four veterinary schools in England and Scotland are private 
institutions, each belonging either to a single individual or the property 
of subscribers, who receive the value of their subscription in advice or 
medical treatment of their animals. 
Notwithstanding this disadvantage, and the lack of Government aid, 
the veterinary profession in Britain determined to exert itself in pro¬ 
moting veterinary education and in maintaining the scientific knowledge 
of its members at as high and uniform a standard as was possible under 
the circumstances. Acting upon this determination, in the year 1844 it 
petitioned Her Majesty’s Government for a Charter of Incorporation 
which would enable it to exercise the powers of a corporate body, and 
utilise these powers to the advantage of the veterinary profession and 
the public. 
The prayer of their petition was granted, and the Royal College of 
