GLASGOW VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
899 
educated veterinai’y surgeons are to the welfare of the general public, I 
am sure there are many here who, like myself, cannot conceal our 
astonishment that so little has been done for the profession by the state 
or by the outside public. We have all seen the public money lavishly 
squandered, even by the most , stingy of Governments, and that, too, 
upon objects bearing perhaps even less directly upon the public weal. 
Wherever man’s life, or his power of doing work for the state, at least, 
are so openly menaced by hardship, or hunger, or disease, that the danger 
cannot be overlooked, but is seen by everybody, Royal Commissioners 
proceed to investigate into it, the whole machinery of Parliament is set 
in motion to remedy it, and money is forthcoming in abundance. But 
let the danger be but ever so slightly veiled, either from its own in¬ 
trinsic nature or from the ignorance of observers, no matter how in¬ 
sidious its progress may be or how widespread its ravages, how slow we 
are to remedy it, or the remedy takes the form of a mere temporary ex¬ 
pedient. When, for instance, an epidemic of hydrophobia occurs, as it 
did two years ago in Glasgow, lengthy proclamations are issued by the 
terror-stricken magistrates, much money is spent, much labour is required, 
many men are employed, and all for what ?—to catch and drown a few 
stray curs. Now, allow me to ask, was that a scientific proceeding worthy 
of a large and wealthy corporation ? Again, certain diseases break out 
among our cattle. A cry goes up, whether well or ill founded I say not, 
that it is from other lands these diseases come ; and in answer to this 
clamour, by Act of Parliament foreign animals wharves, with slaughter¬ 
houses and their appurtenances, are at once erected at our sea ports, and 
the fiat goes forth that no cattle or sheep, however free from disease 
they may be, provided only they hail from a foreign shore, shall be 
turned loose to graze in our fields or be recruited after a long voyage 
before being converted into food for the people. Again I ask, is this a 
scientific method of procedure ? Surely not. It may be expedient in 
the present lamentable state of ignorance, but of itself is a con¬ 
fession of ignorance, of fear, and perhaps even of self-interest on 
the part of a few. But, in my humble opinion, it is beginning at 
the wrong end. Would it not be better and wiser too to spend 
money on the investigation of the causes, the natural history, and 
the results of these diseases, their modes of propagation, their limitation, 
and their treatment; to find out how much, perhaps, our inhuman 
methods of housing animals and conveying them on board ship from one 
port to another, our inattention to ventilation, and our wretched 
systems of drainage, are responsible for the origin and spread of 
contagious diseases? Would it not, in a word, be far wiser 
to devote some part of our means to the proper educating of 
scientific veterinary practitioners, to put the best means of study 
and research within their reach, and to endow them with laboratories 
and apparatus for the proper carrying out of their investigations. There 
is a good old Latin motto, Fas est ab hoste doceri, and in this respect we 
have much to learn from our Continental rivals. We have splendid 
examples both in France and Germany of what may be done by Govern¬ 
ment guided by an enlightened public spirit. The veterinary surgeons 
here present know full well the immense obligations the profession lies 
under to France, which may almost be called the birthplace of the veteri¬ 
nary art. But we owe France a still greater debt of gratitude for showing 
us a college like that at Alfort, so munificently equipped and endowed, 
and the alma mater of the best educated and most scientific race of 
veterinarians the world has yet seen. Why should Continental nations 
take the lead in this respect ? They have no greater interest at stake 
