294 LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
Simonds, who is so practically acquainted with contagious dis¬ 
eases, including cattle plagues, and so conversant with all known 
sanitary precautions which should be taken against their exten¬ 
sion. 
Attempts have been made to disguise the slight cast upon us, 
on the assumption that the conference was rather a legal than 
scientific gathering, and by other equally weak arguments, coined 
apparently to soothe our feelings. It is nevertheless an unwel¬ 
come certainty that Englishmen were the only people unrepre¬ 
sented by a veterinary surgeon—our profession being disregarded 
and its services apparently undervalued by her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment. 
The State had, I think, little cause for the perpetration of this 
slight to us. Hitherto not only have we existed, but even rapidly 
advanced without its aid. 
Has the Government forgotten that when, early in the year 
1866, it condescended to adopt the stamping-out process, for the 
suppression of cattle plague, advocated by competent veteri¬ 
nary advisers, from the commencement of the outbreak ? Un¬ 
fortunately, perhaps, for us, this advice was not acted upon, until 
the herds of the country had been decimated by the disease, and 
the centres of infection almost indefinitely multiplied. The general 
public, as a rule, look to results, and not closely into the details 
for their accomplishment; it may not be generally known, but 
the State can scarcely plead ignorance, that hecatombs were sacri¬ 
ficed to the opinions of men unskilled in the pathology of con¬ 
tagious typhus, before the sound advice of veterinary autho¬ 
rities was taken. The exertions of veterinary surgeons, in those 
trying times, if not forgotten, have been rewarded by slights, 
not the least of which is the appointment of police inspectors for 
the detection of epizootic and contagious diseases. Government, 
as the natural protector of the public weal, is right in adopting 
efficient measures to ascertain the existence of dangerous con¬ 
tagious diseases, but surely it is questionable economy, as may 
some day be proved, to entrust the reports of disastrous outbreaks 
of epizootic disease to the skill of a police-officer. 
Contrast this state of things with the manner in which Con¬ 
tinental veterinary surgeons are treated by their respective govern¬ 
ments, and we suffer almost inexpressibly by the comparison. 
Yet I would not imply that State support conduces much to the 
advancement of our profession abroad in public estimation; such 
patronage rarely exercises salutary influences on the spirit of in¬ 
dependence and self-reliance; for the life-blood of knowledge is 
freedom,—take it from her and she perishes. Rather would I 
attribute the comparatively exalted position of our continental 
confreres to their more complete system of instruction, and higher 
